"A blond source?" I made curving motions with my hands. "I don't blame her. My efficient and conscientious charge d'affaires, Mr. Thrombley, felt that I should reach the Embassy, here, as soon as possible, and from where she was standing, it must have looked like a kidnapping. Fact is, it looked like one from where I was standing, too. Was that you and your people who were chasing us? Then I must apologize for opening fire on you ... I hope nobody was hurt." "No, our cars are pretty well armored. You scored a couple of times on one of them, but no harm done. I reckon after what happened to Silas Cumshaw, you had a right to be suspicious." I noticed that refreshments, including several bottles, had been placed on a big wicker table under the arched veranda. "Can I offer you a drink, Captain, in token of mutual amity?" I asked. "Well, now, I'd like to, Mr. Ambassador, but I'm on duty ..." he began. "You can't be. You're an officer of the Planetary Government of New Texas, and in this Embassy, you're in the territory of the Solar League." "That's right, now, Mr. Ambassador," he grinned. "Extraterritoriality. Wonderful thing, extraterritoriality." He looked at Hoddy, who, for the first time since I had met him, was trying to shrink into the background. "And diplomatic immunity, too. Ain't it, Hoddy?" After he had had his drink and departed, we all sat down. Thrombley began speaking almost at once. "Mr. Ambassador, you must, you simply must, issue a public statement, immediately, sir. Only a public statement, issued promptly, will relieve the crisis into which we have all been thrust." "Oh, come, Mr. Thrombley," I objected. "Captain Nelson'll take care of all that in his report to his superiors." Thrombley looked at me for a moment as though I had been speaking to him in Hottentot, then waved his hands in polite exasperation. "Oh, no, no! I don't mean that, sir. I mean a public statement to the effect that you have assumed full responsibility for the Embassy. Where is that thing? Mr. Gomez!" Gomez gave him four or five sheets, stapled together. He laid them on the table, turned to the last sheet, and whipped out a pen. "Here, sir; just sign here." "Are you crazy?" I demanded. "I'll be damned if I'll sign that. Not till I've taken an inventory of the physical property of the Embassy, and familiarized myself with all its commitments, and had the books audited by some firm of certified public accountants." Thrombley and Gomez looked at one another. They both groaned. "But we must have a statement of assumption of responsibility ..." Gomez dithered. "... or the business of the Embassy will be at a dead stop, and we can't do anything," Thrombley finished.