"Sorry if I seemed out of line today," Granger said. "My motives are good. And I didn't want to insult you." "Thanks," Ed responded shortly. "But you didn't come here just to tell me that. How does it happen that you're not in jail?" "Abel Freeman discreetly pressed no charges. I wish he had. But, like you, he just disappeared. There was only that hole in the ground--made by the Midas Touch pistol--a feeble thing to admit for a publicity showdown. So I kept still, and the police couldn't hold me. Fact is, most of them seem sympathetic to what I stand for--the venerable human privilege of walking on one's own green planet as a natural animal, loving one's wife and children in the ancient, simple manner." Granger was a good orator. Mysteriously, Ed was faintly moved. Perhaps the gentle argument was too plain and clear. But Ed remained wary of the traps of language and feeling, and of perhaps impractical dreams. His anger sharpened. Then, knowing the possibly deadly quality of anger in these times and wishing to counteract that everywhere, he yearned desperately to be a master psychologist, always calm and smiling and supremely persuasive. But he could not be like that. He was too human and limited. Maybe too primitive. "You still haven't told me why you came here, Granger," he said coldly. "Why have you passed up a chance for public shouting to come and talk to me?" Granger smiled. "You're clever enough, Dukas, to know that to win the nephew of Mitchell Prell over to my way of thinking could be to my advantage before that public. Or that, if I can't make friends with him, at least knowing him better might help. Even the latter circumstance could be like having a finger on a whole set of advantages when the showdown between human beings and androids finally comes. Oh, I admire Prell! A great man--if he _was_ a man when last seen! But his kind of greatness is poison, Dukas--though millions with short memories have foolishly forgiven him. But if he ever turns up again, you'll know it, and so, perhaps, will I--before he can do any further damage. You surely must realize that he bears a double guilt: for the blowup and for the development of vitaplasm!" Granger's smile was savage and hopeful.