"Obvious. He'd make love to the old girl and inside of three days he'd be head man around here."
"I think I'll have some breakfast after all^" announced Burke.
"You'll leave that chow for the lieutenant," Oscar said firmly. "You had your chance."
"You've got no authority over me."
"There are two reasons why you are wrong."
"So? What are they?"
"Matt and Tex."
Tex stood up. "Shall I clip him, boss?"
"Not yet."
"Oh, shucks!"
"Anyhow," objected Matt. "I get first crack-I'm senior to you, Tex."
"Pulling rank on me, eh? Why you unspeakable rat!'
"Mister Rat, if you please, Yep, in this instance I claim j| rank."
"But this is a social occasion."
"Shut up, you guys," instructed Oscar. "Neither of you is to clip him unless he gets to sniffing around that food dish."
There was a noise "at the door, the curtain was pushed back and a native announced, "My mother will see thee. Come."
"Myself alone, or me and my sisters?"
"All of you. Come."
However, when Burke attempted to pass through the door two of the little creatures pushed him back inside. They continued, to restrain him while four others picked up Lieutenant Thurlow and carried him outside. The numerous party set out down the passageway.
"I wish they would light these rabbit nests," Tex complained, after stumbling.
"It's light enough to their eyes," Oscar answered. f
"Natch," agreed Tex, "but a fat lot of good that does me. My eyes don't see infra-red." ;
"Then pick up your big feet."
They were taken to another large room, not the entrance hall, for it contained no pool of water. An amphibian, the same who had viewed them and ordered them taken away on their arrival, sat on a raised platform at the far end of the room. Only Oscar recognized her as such; to the others she looked like the rest.
Oscar quickened his pace and drew ahead of his escort "Greetings, thou old and wise mother of many."
She sat up and looked at him steadily. The room was very quiet. On every side the little folk waited, looking first from the earthlings to their chief executive, then back again. Matt felt that somehow the nature of her answer would show them their fate.
"Greetings." She had chucked the ball back to Oscar by refusing to assign him any title at all, good or bad. "Thou sought speech with me. Thou may speak."
"What manner of city is thine? Have I, perhaps, journeyed so far that manners are no longer observed?" The Venerian word meant much more than "manners"; it referred to the entire obligatory code of custom by which the older and stronger looked out for the weaker and younger.
The entire audience stirred. Matt wondered if Oscar had overplayed his hand. The expression of the leader changed but Matt had no way of reading it. "My city and my daughters live ever by custom-" She used a more inclusive term, embracing tabus and other required acts, as well as the law of assistance, "-and I have never before heard it suggested that we fail in performance."
"I hear thee, gracious mother of many, but thy words confuse me. We come, my 'sisters' and I, seeking shelter and help for ourselves and our 'mother' who is gravely ill. I myself am injured and am unable to protect my younger 'sisters.' What have we received in thy house? Thou hast deprived us of our freedom; our 'mother' lies unattended and failing. Indeed we have not even been granted the common decency of personal rooms in which to eat."
A noise rose from the spectators which Matt correctly interpreted as the equivalent of a shocked gasp. Oscar had deliberately used the offensive word "eat," instead of talking around it. Matt was sure now that Oscar had lost his judgment.
If so, Oscar went on to confirm it. "Are we fish, that such should be done to us? Or are the customs such among thy daughters?"
"We follow the customs," she said shortly, and even Matt and Tex could interpret the anger in her voice. "It was my understanding that thy breed had no decencies. It will be corrected." She spoke sharply in an aside to one of her staff; the little creature trotted away. "As to thy freedom, what 1 had done was lawful for it was to protect my daughters."
"To protect thy daughters? From what? From my ailing 'mother? Or from my injured arm?"
"Thy sister who knows no customs has forfeited thy freedom."
"I hear thy words, wise mother, but I understand them not."
The amphibian seemed nonpleased. She inquired specifically about Burke, naming him by his terrestrial tag, calling it "Captain-Burke," as one word. Oscar assured her that ; Burke was no "daughter" of Oscar's "mother," nor of Os- ; car's "mother's mother." :
The matriarch considered this. "If we return you to the upper waters will you leave us?"
"What of my 'mother'?" asked Oscar. "Wouldst thou, cast 'her' forth thus ailing, to die and to be destroyed by ' the creatures of the slime?" On this occasion he carefully -j avoided the Venerian expression for "to be eaten."
The mother-of-many had Thurlow carried up to the dais? on which she sat. Several of the little folk gathered around; him and examined him, speaking to each other in high,| lisping whispers. Presently the matriarch herself joined the consultation, then spoke again. "Thy mother sleeps."
"It is a sickly sleep. 'Her head was injured by a blow." Oscar joined the group and showed them the lump on the back of Thurlow's head. They compared it with Oscar's own head, running gentle, inquisitive little hands through his blond hair. There was more lisping chatter; Matt found himself unable to follow even what he could hear; most of] the words were strange.
"My learned sisters tell me that they dare not take thy mother's head apart for fear that they could not get it back together," announced the mother-of-many.
"Well, that's a relief I" Tex said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Old Oz wouldn't let them anyhow," Matt whispered.
The leader gave instructions and four of her "daughters" picked up the unconscious officer and started carrying him out of the room. Tex called out, "Hey, Oz-do you think that's safe?"
"It's all right," Oscar called back, then explained to the matriarch, "My 'sister' feared for the safety of our 'mother.' "
The creature made a gesture that reminded Matt suddenly of his great- aunt Dora-she positively sniffed. "Tell her that her nose need not twitch!"
"She says not to get in an uproar, Tex."
"I heard her. Okay, you're the boss," Tex answered, and then muttered, "My nose, indeed!"
When Thurlow had been removed the leader turned toward them again. "May thy dreams be of daughters."
"May thy dreams be as pleasant, gracious mother."
"We will speak again." She gathered herself up to a lordly four feet and left the chamber. When she was gone the group of escorts conducted the cadets out of the council hall but by a different passageway than that from which they had come. The group stopped presently at another doorway. The guide in charge wished them farewell with the same formula as the matriarch. A curtain was drawn but it was not fastened, a point that Matt immediately checked. He turned to Oscar.
"I've got to hand it to you, Oz. Anytime you get tired of the Patrol and don't want to run for prime minister of the System, I can book you for a swell job, selling snow to Eskimos. For you it would be a cinch."
"Mart's not just fanning the air," agreed Tex. "Oscar, you were wonderful. Uncle Bodie couldn't have handled the old gal any slicker."
"That's high praise, Tex. I'll admit to being relieved. If the Little People weren't so downright decent it wouldn't have worked."
The living room of their apartment-there were two rooms -was about the size of the room they had been in, but was more comfortable. There was a softly padded, wide couch running around the wall. In the center of the room was a pool of water, black under the dim light. "Oz, do you suppose that bathtub connects with the outside?" Tex wanted to know.
"They almost always do."
Matt became interested. "Maybe we could swim out."
"Go ahead and try it. Don't get lost in the dark and remember not to swim under water more than half the distance you can hold your breath." Oscar smiled cynically.