_Kismet_, Skkiru muttered to himself, _and a little sleight of hand._ But he didn't dare offer this conclusion aloud; the libel laws of Snaddra were very severe. So he had to fall back on a weak, "And I suppose it is kismet that makes us all have to go live out on the ground during the day, like--like savages." "It is necessary," Bbulas replied without turning. "Pooh," Skkiru said. "Pooh, _pooh_, POOH!" Larhgan's dainty earflaps closed. "Skkiru! Such language!" "As you said," Bbulas murmured, contemptuously coiling one antenna at Skkiru, "the lots chose well and if you touch me, Skkiru, we shall have another drawing for beggar and you will be made a metal-worker." "But I can't work metal!" "Then that will make it much worse for you than for the other outcasts," Bbulas said smugly, "because you will be a pariah without a trade." "Speaking of pariahs, that reminds me, Skkiru, before I forget, I'd better give you back your grimpatch--" Larhgan handed the glittering bauble to him--"and you give me mine. Since we can't be betrothed any longer, you might want to give yours to some nice beggar girl." "I don't want to give my grimpatch to some nice beggar girl!" Skkiru yelled, twirling madly in the air. "As for me," she sighed, standing soulfully on her head, "I do not think I shall ever marry. I shall make the religious life my career. Are there going to be any saints in your mythos, Bbulas?" "Even if there will be," Bbulas said, "you certainly won't qualify if you keep putting yourself into a position which not only represents a trait wholly out of keeping with the new culture, but is most unseemly with the high priestess's robes." Larhgan ignored his unfeeling observations. "I shall set myself apart from mundane affairs," she vowed, "and I shall pretend to be happy, even though my heart will be breaking." It was only at that moment that Skkiru realized just how outrageous the whole thing really was. There must be another solution to the planet's problem. "Listen--" he began, but just then excited noises filtered down from overhead. It was too late. "Earth ship in view!" a squeaky voice called through the intercom. "Everybody topside and don't forget your shoes." Except the beggar. Beggars went barefoot. Beggars suffered. Bbulas had made him beggar purposely, and the lots were a lot of slibwash. "Hurry up, Skkiru." * * * * * Bbulas slid the ornate headdress over his antennae, which, already gilded and jeweled, at once seemed to become a part of it. He looked pretty damn silly, Skkiru thought, at the same time conscious of his own appearance--which was, although picturesque enough to delight romantic Terrestrial hearts, sufficiently wretched to charm the most hardened sadist. "Hurry up, Skkiru," Bbulas said. "They mustn't suspect the existence of the city underground or we're finished before we've started."