"I don't understand." I said politely. (Meaning he was being too abstruse for any of us, for it is understood that there is no keener apprehension in the council than my own.) "Is Your Honor implying that there exist outside our world other intelligences that would be capable of observing and drawing conclusions from the pebbles?" "Exactly. I know that the general belief is that it is impossible that extraplanetary beings can exist, least of all intelligent beings. That was the belief of my own colleagues until I gave them the results of my recent Thought. It is the reason We have summoned you here. "For some time now We have been receiving peculiar radio waves from outside the world. We have considered them merely manifestations of random radiation from other planets and stars. But now they have suddenly become--shall I say rhythmical? Measured? Directional? They leave the impression that someone, or something, is trying to communicate with us. "The astronomers among Us have become more and more concerned. We have finally been led to the reluctant belief that Our former theories have been wrong--that this actually is not the only inhabited planet. "Now, I need not tell you how disastrous it would be for us if that were true. If there _are_ intelligent beings on other planets, if they are trying to communicate with us, then the next step would be that they would try to visit us." Marnag raised his hand. "What harm would that do? If such beings exist, and if they could come here, why couldn't we go there too--wherever it is--and wouldn't that enrich our lives? Of course I'm not a Thinker--" I had a fleeting vision of Nipar and the pitcher of mastonyi!--"but I'm a Real Man and I can see no reason why it would hurt us to find we are not alone in the universe." "No," said Myrwan dryly. "You are not a Thinker, my friend. We enjoy here a completely stable civilization. It is the best of all possible social systems. We do not want it disturbed." "I see," said Marnag, and several others nodded. I confess that a heretical idea crossed my mind--that any such disturbance might well dethrone the Thinkers first of all--but I suppressed it. Myrwan went on: "And that is where the phph pebbles come in. In the course of my researches on these previously unknown waves, I began to wonder what, if anything, had initiated the interest of outsiders in our planet, assuming that outsiders exist. Certainly we had made no move toward trying either to reach or to communicate with any putative dwellers on other planets. There had been no major changes on our planet that could have enlisted the attention of outside astronomers, even granting that they have telescopes as powerful as our own. "Only one thing, so far as I can ascertain, has ever left this planet for outer space. And that was the phph pebbles.