Eckert frowned. The same answer--Pendleton had had no enemies and yet he had had no friends. "Would you say he was well liked here?" "I would say no." "Why not?" A shrug. "It is hard to explain and you would not be able to understand." "Did somebody here kill Pendleton?" Eckert could hear Templin suck in his breath. "No." "Ask him that again," Templin cut in. "Did somebody kill Pendleton?" "No." "Did Pendleton kill himself?" A trace of disgust showed on Nayova's face. "Yes." "Why?" "I do not know." Templin gestured to Eckert to take the box. "Let me ask him." He came around and faced the native. "Why did your people kill Pendleton?" "We did not kill him. We had no reason to wish him harm." "Do you expect us to believe that Pendleton killed himself? We knew him better than that." "You may believe whatever you wish. But men change and perhaps he did. We did not kill him. Such an act would have been repugnant to us." "I think that's enough," Eckert said calmly. Templin bit his lip as Eckert touched another dial on the machine. Nayova suddenly jerked, looked blank, and slumped in the chair. Eckert took off the electrodes. "Help me take him back, will you, Ray?" * * * * * They carried Nayova to his house, stayed with him until he showed signs of recovering, and then left. "Why didn't you use a drug?" Templin demanded. "Possible allergy or serum reaction. We don't know enough about these people to take chances--they're humanoid, not human." "They can fool machines, though, can't they?" Eckert didn't reply. "All right, I know they can't," Templin said grudgingly. "He was telling the truth all the time, wasn't he?" Eckert nodded. "I never did think he was lying. They don't seem to be the type; their culture doesn't allow for it." They were silent for a while, walking quietly in the lanes between the shuttered, seemingly untenanted houses. "I'm glad," Templin said quietly. "It's off my mind. It's hard to believe that anybody here would ... deliberately kill somebody else." Templin's reactions would be worth something now for Eckert to study. They wouldn't be inhibited by his conviction that the natives had murdered his best friend. Just what reactions and emotions he would display, Eckert wasn't sure, nor how Templin's psychology, so similar to Pendleton's, would help solve the problem. They had eliminated one possibility, but that still left them with the one they had started with. _Why had Pendleton taken the short way out?_ * * * * * A breeze scampered through the open door and played tag with the papers on the desk. Eckert swore without annoyance and calmly started chasing those that had been blown on the floor.