MacMaine turned the lock on the prisoner's cell door and went in. Then he came to attention and saluted the Kerothi general. He was probably the only officer in the place who did that, he knew; the others treated the alien general as though he were a criminal. Worse, they treated him as though he were a petty thief or a common pickpocket--criminal, yes, but of a definitely inferior type. _ General Tallis, as always, stood and returned the salute. "Cut mawnik, Cunnel MacMaine," he said. The Kerothi language lacked many of the voiced consonants of English and Russian, and, as a result, Tallis' use of _B__, _D__, _G__, _J__, _V__, and _Z__ made them come out as _P__, _T__, _K__, _CH__, _F__, and _S__. The English _R__, as it is pronounced in _run__ or _rat__, eluded him entirely, and he pronounced it only when he could give it the guttural pronunciation of the German _R__. The terminal _NG__ always came out as _NK__. The nasal _M__ and _N_ were a little more drawn out than in English, but they were easily understandable. * * * * * "Good morning, General Tallis," MacMaine said. "Sit down. How do you feel this morning?" The general sat again on the hard bunk that, aside from the single chair, was the only furniture in the small cell. "Ass well ass coot pe expectet. I ket ferry little exercisse. I ... how iss it set? ... I pecome soft? Soft? Iss correct?" "Correct. You've learned our language very well for so short a time." The general shrugged off the compliment. "Wen it iss a matteh of learrn in orrter to surfife, one learrnss." "You think, then, that your survival has depended on your learning our language?" The general's orange face contrived a wry smile. "Opfiously. Your people fill not learn Kerothic. If I cannot answerr questionss, I am uff no use. Ass lonk ass I am uff use, I will liff. Not?" MacMaine decided he might as well spring his bomb on the Kerothi officer now as later. "I am not so certain but that you might have stretched out your time longer if you had forced us to learn Kerothic, general," he said in Kerothic. He knew his Kerothic was bad, since it had been learned from the Kerothi spaceman who had been captured with the general, and the man had been badly wounded and had survived only two weeks. But that little bit of basic instruction, plus the work he had done on the books and tapes from the ruined Kerothi ship, had helped him. _ "Ah?" The general blinked in surprise. Then he smiled. "Your accent," he said in Kerothic, "is atrocious, but certainly no worse than mine when I speak your _Inklitch_. I suppose you intend to question me in Kerothic now, eh? In the hope that I may reveal more in my own tongue?" "Possibly you may," MacMaine said with a grin, "but I learned it for my own information." "For your own what? Oh. I see. Interesting. I know no others of your race who would do such a thing. Anything which is difficult is beneath them."