The expert frowned horribly, showing all of his teeth. Korvin did his best not to react. "Your plan is a failure," the expert said, "and you call this a good thing. You can mean only that your plan is different from the one we are occupied with." "True," Korvin said. There was a short silence. The expert beamed. He examined the indicators of the lie-detector with great care. "What is your plan?" he said at last, in a conspiratorial whisper. "To answer your questions, truthfully and logically," Korvin said. The silence this time was even longer. "The machine says that you tell the truth," the experts said at last, in a awed tone. "Thus, you must be a traitor to your native planet. You must want us to conquer your planet, and have come here secretly to aid us." Korvin was very glad that wasn't a question. It was, after all, the only logical deduction. But it happened to be wrong. * * * * * "The name of your planet is Earth?" the Ruler asked. A few minutes had passed; the experts were clustered around the single chair. Korvin was still strapped to the machine; a logical race makes use of a traitor, but a logical race does not trust him. "Sometimes," Korvin said. "It has other names?" the Ruler said. "It has no name," Korvin said truthfully. The Tr'en idiom was like the Earthly one; and certainly a planet had no name. People attached names to it, that was all. It had none of its own. "Yet you call it Earth?" the Ruler said. "I do," Korvin said, "for convenience." "Do you know its location?" the Ruler said. "Not with exactitude," Korvin said. There was a stir. "But you can find it again," the Ruler said. "I can," Korvin said. "And you will tell us about it?" the Ruler went on. "I will," Korvin said, "so far as I am able." "We will wish to know about weapons," the Ruler said, "and about plans and fortifications. But we must first know of the manner of decision on this planet. Is your planet joined with others in a government or does it exist alone?" Korvin nearly smiled. "Both," he said. A short silence was broken by one of the attendant experts. "We have theorized that an underling may be permitted to make some of his own decisions, leaving only the more extensive ones for the master. This seems to us inefficient and liable to error, yet it is a possible system. Is it the system you mean?" Very sharp, Korvin told himself grimly. "It is," he said. "Then the government which reigns over several planets is supreme," the Ruler said. "It is," Korvin said. "Who is it that governs?" the Ruler said. The key question had, at last, been asked. Korvin felt grateful that the logical Tr'en had determined to begin from the beginning, instead of going off after details of armament first; it saved a lot of time. "The answer to that question," Korvin said, "cannot be given to you."