It was as though he hadn't said a word. Both robots and wygorex ignored him completely. Dodeth turned and yelled to one of the patrol robots that was standing nearby. "You! What's your name?" "Arvam, sir." "Arvam, can you tell what it is those things have done to the robots?" "They haven't done anything, sir." "Then why don't the robots fire as they've been told?" Dodeth didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but he was badly frightened. He had never heard of a robot behaving this way before. "They can't, sir." "They _can't_? Don't they realize that if those things aren't killed, we may all die?" "I didn't know that," said the patrol robot. "If we do not kill them, then you may be killed, and you have ordered us to kill them, but if we obey your orders, then we will kill them, and that will mean that you won't be killed, but they will, so we can't do that, but if we don't then you _will_ be killed, and we must obey, and that means we must, but we can't, but if we don't we will, and we can't so we must but we can't but if we don't you will so we must but we can't but we--" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on. "Stop that!" snapped Dodeth. But the robot didn't even seem to hear. Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepers and scuttled toward them. "What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've never failed us before!" The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failed us now?" he asked softly. Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making any more sense than the patrol robot had. "No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served us well. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed to see, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophic error." "I don't understand," said Dodeth. "I'll explain," the Elder Keeper said, "but first go over to that patrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed. Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Then bring him over here." * * * * * Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all. "I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly. "Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?" "Why ... why, he'd _refuse_." "Why should he?" "Because I'm _human_! That's the most basic robot command." "I don't know," the Eldest said, eying Dodeth shrewdly. "You might not be a human. You might be a snith. You _look_ like a snith." Dodeth swallowed the insult, wondering what the Eldest meant. "Arvam," the Eldest Keeper said to the robot, "doesn't he look like a snith to you?" "Yes, sir," Arvam agreed. Dodeth swallowed that one, too. "Then how do you know he _isn't_ a snith, Arvam?" "Because he behaves like a human, sir. A snith does not behave like a human." "And if something does behave like a human, what then?"