There was a long silence before Ghuvek spoke. And when he spoke, it was the voice of a being whose pride had been completely crushed. "If we had known," he said weakly, swallowing. "Who knew the Earthmen were supermen? You're the first we could capture--and it was all a trick! You _let_ us capture you, to show us what you could do." "Very smart, Ghuvek. You learn quickly." The alien passed one hand over his face. "We'll ... we'll call off our offensive at once." "Good. Now I'll use your radio to call Earth and tell them you're on your way to arrange peace terms!" * * * * * At Earth Military Headquarters, General James Bedford snapped off the subspace radio and grinned at the man who faced him across the table, Colonel Parnell. "You hear that, Parnell? The trick worked! He got them so scared of Earthmen that they're ready to come to terms." Colonel Parnell smiled. "Fine deal all around. It cost us ten billion dollars to build Military Advance Robot Number Ten, not counting what we spent on the first nine failures--but it was worth it. We've saved untold numbers of lives." The general nodded. "Well worth it. MAR-10 did the job perfectly."