The bald one's eyes closed and his belly quivered with high, tremulous laughter. "Tell him, Ursi!" "Don't blame me!" the one called Ursi squeaked, then pointed a claw-like finger at a glowing disc in his belt. "Interference disturbed the scanner scope. I didn't see him until he fired!" Baldy chuckled. "He was after food, not your ugly hide. But in your unseemly haste to escape, you dropped a valuable tool. A very careless blunder. And now instead of mold specimens, you've collected a human. I knew this expedition would prove interesting." "We have to dispose of him!" Ursi shrieked and waved a black tube at Clark menacingly. "You'd kill him to recover your tool?" Baldy's nose twitched. "Remember we prepare separate reports for the Council. Don't expect me to aid in breaking the law." Ursi was painfully silent. * * * * * Baldy seemed to relish his companion's distress. "You realize, Ursi, you're responsible for this illegal contact? Also may I remind you that the Law reads in part: On pain of death, no human shall be molested, coerced or in any way injured by an expeditionary member's overt action." "Can't we bargain with him?" Ursi asked irritably. "Why, of course. Offer him our ship or your life," Baldy said. Ursi scowled. "If we take the tool and induce amnesia--" "The Law clearly prohibits that." "Let him keep it then," Ursi said angrily, rubbing a pointed blue chin. "I'll destroy its power principle first." Baldy sighed. "I repeat, this isn't a brainless Martian without legal rights. You abandoned it, a human found it. By merely picking up the tool, he establishes a salvage claim." "You call that law?" Ursi raged. "Stupid technicalities that settle one problem to raise a worse one?" "Until the Council ratifies the amendment foreseeing this contingency," Baldy explained, "you must abide by the original code." "But the tool's restricted!" "Restricted for thirty solar years according to the Probability Graphs," mused Baldy. "You should have thought of that." Ursi's wide glittering eyes terrified Clark. But after an agonizing silence, he heard Ursi whine fearfully, "We can't allow this! Can't you read his basic attitudes? He's suffering from the Korb power complex." Baldy shrugged. "Your misfortune, my dear Ursi." Ursi edged warily toward Clark as if he were a ferocious but chained beast. "Your nation is a member of the Western Alliance?" Bewildered, Clark cleared his throat. "Yes." "You have atomic weapons you intend using against your enemy--against the Eastern Empire?" "If they attack us," Clark muttered nervously.