“I might’ve known,” said Orne. He took another sip of the brandy. Stetson flicked on the switch of a recorder beside him. “O.K. You can go ahead any time.” “Where do you want me to start?” “First, how’d you spot right away where they’d hidden the _Delphinus_?” “Easy. Tanub’s word for his people was _Grazzi_. Most races call themselves something meaning _The People_. But in his tongue that’s _Ocheero_. _Grazzi_ wasn’t on the translated list. I started working on it. The most likely answer was that it had been adopted from another language, and meant _enemy_.” “And _that_ told you where the _Delphinus_ was?” “No. But it fitted my hunch about these Gienahns. I’d kind of felt from the first minute of meeting them that they had a culture like the Indians of ancient Terra.” “Why?” “They came in like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped right onto the hood of my sled. An act of bravery, no less. Counting coup, you see?” “I guess so.” “Then he said he was High Path Chief. That wasn’t on the language list, either. But it was easy: _Raider Chief._ There’s a word in almost every language in history that means raider and derives from a word for road, path or highway.” “Highwaymen,” said Stetson. “Raid itself,” said Orne. “An ancient Terran language corruption of road.” “Yeah, yeah. But where’d all this translation griff put—” “Don’t be impatient. Glass-blowing culture meant they were just out of the primitive stage. That, we could control. Next, he said their moon was _Chiranachuruso_, translated as _The Limb of Victory_. After that it just fell into place.” “How?” “The vertical-slit pupils of their eyes. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” “Maybe. What’s it mean to you?” “Night-hunting predator accustomed to dropping upon its victims from above. No other type of creature ever has had the vertical slit. And Tanub said himself that the _Delphinus_ was hidden in the best place in all of their history. History? That’d be a high place. Dark, likewise. Ergo: a high place on the darkside of their moon.” “I’m a pie-eyed greepus,” whispered Stetson. Orne grinned, said: “You probably are ... sir.” THE END Transcriber’s Notes: The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text. p. 102: [normalized] ComGo -> ComGO p. 103: net of snakers -> sneakers p. 105: [removed extra quote] “Orne swallowed p. 111: [added closing quote] “A glass-blowing culture,” End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Missing Link, by Frank Patrick Herbert