I stopped, feeling like a fool. Zorchi was laughing raucously. I said resentfully, "I guess I asked for that, Zorchi. Well, perhaps what I said sounds funny. But, before God, Zorchi, that's the way the Company is set up. Here--" I picked the Handbook from the end-table beside me and tossed it to him--"read what Millen Carmody says. I won't try to convince you. Just read it." He caught it expertly and dropped it on the floor before him. "So much for your Chief Assassin," he remarked pleasantly. "The words are no doubt honied, Weels, but I am not at this moment interested to read them." I shrugged. It was peculiar how even a reasonable man--I have always thought of myself as a reasonable man--could make a fool of himself. It was no sin that habit had betrayed me into exalting the Company; but it was, at the least, quite silly of me to take offense when my audience disagreed with me. I said, in what must have been a surly tone, "I don't suppose you are--why should you? You hate the Company from the word go." He shook his head mildly. "I? No, Weels. Believe me, I am the Company's most devoted friend. Without it, how would I feed my five-times-a-day appetite?" I sneered at him. "If you're a friend to the Company, then my best buddy is a tapeworm." "Meaning that Zorchi is a parasite?" His eyes were furious. "Weels, you impose on me too far! Be careful! Is it the act of a tapeworm that I bleed and die, over and over? Is it something I chose, did I pray to the saints, before my mother spawned me, that I should be born a monster? No, Weels! We are alike, you gentlemen of the Company and I--we live on blood money, it is true. But the blood I live on, man--it is my own!" I said mollifyingly, "Zorchi, I've had a hard day. I didn't mean to be nasty. I apologize." "Hah!" "No, really." * * * * * He shrugged, abruptly quiet. "It is of no importance," he said. "If I wished to bear you a grudge, Weels, I would have more than that to give me cause." He sighed. "It all looked quite simple twenty-four hours ago, Weels. True, I had worked my little profession in this area as far as it might go--with your help, of course. But the world was before me--I had arranged to fly next week to the Parisian Anarch, to change my name and, perhaps within a month, with a new policy, suffer a severe accident that would provide me with francs for my hobbies. Why is it that you bring bad news always?" I said, "Wasn't I of some little assistance to you at one time?" "In helping me from the deep-freeze? Oh, yes, perhaps. But didn't you help me into it in the first place, as well? And surely you have already had sufficient credit for aiding my escape--I observe the young lady looking at you with the eyes of one who sees a hero."