Grady's face cracked into a slight grin. "Little bit of an argument. The Mutiny. I joined the local army, if you could call it that. I had my own gun, so they made me a major on the spot." "The Mutiny?" The _Berenice's_ mate had heard of that brief and savage war, in which a handful of settlers and local militia had beaten off the troops of a powerful state, and had actually won. The mate hastily readjusted his opinion of Grady upward. A trader's agent was one thing; a man who had fought through the Mutiny was something more than that. The mate opened his mouth to ask more of the story; but the _Berenice's_ air-horn cut him off with a long wail. "Take-off in twenty minutes," the mate said, as the noise subsided. "You ready, Jansen?" The ex-agent nodded, and shook hands with Grady. "Good luck," he said, and started for the ship, the mate following. "Yeah," Grady said, closing the door of the agency. He had completely put the _Berenice_ out of his mind by the time the roar of her departure split the wet air of Pru'ut. He was, in fact, well on his way to settling down as a permanent resident by that time. * * * * * A year later, the _Berenice_ had called twice, and her captain and mate were calling Grady by his first name. He had also acquired a native woman, who, in accordance with one of the innumerable customs, could not call him by name at all. She referred to him as Kotasa, which is a sort of title. He, also in accordance with customs, called her Shallra, which was not her name, but that of her mother. Grady was also extremely careful not to speak to her mother at all, because of another custom. Grady--Kotasa to his wife, and Shassa to the rest of the village--fitted in well, better than any Terran had until his coming. Grady had spent most of his life living in odd places and with strange people; and had come to the conclusion that it was always a good idea to be a conservative by local standards. He could recall, quite clearly, the day he had found what was left of Steynert, who had tried to change the dietary habits of the inhabitants of Kree. By comparison with the Kree, the Kya were an easy people to get along with. Their lives were not hard, since Pru'ut was a fertile world, and full of food sources. The Kya farmed their garden patches, fished, and hunted, and spent the remaining time gathering plants for Grady and reciting endless and complex genealogies. Grady paid for the plants with goods from the trade warehouse, and listened gravely to the genealogies, making mental notes whenever anything was mentioned that might be of practical use. He did not consider himself as a collector of scientific information; he was a practical man, and he selected information for practical ends.