"You—" Brisson choked."You miserable brigand! You vile poltroon!"
"Well?"
"Before I do that, I will go back to Horko and tell him how his ancestors could have got that statue up on the pedestal!"
"What?"
"Certainly. They could have used a long inclined ramp and dug it away afterwards. I still think my first theory is the more probable, but Horko won't care about that. Ha, filthy wretch, you cower and pale, do you not?"
"You wouldn't betray your own kind!" '
"Wouldn't I? What have my own kind done for me on Kterem, except to try to rob me of the fruits of my scientific labors?"
"Well, it won't happen anymore." Holm pressed a spring and a drawer of his desk flew open. He snatched out a pistol and pointed it at Brisson.
"I'm sorry to kill you, little man," he said, "but you're too dangerous. I can't have anybody running around here with such subversive ideas."
"You do not dare. They will hang you."
"Hang me, the guy who makes up the jury-lists? Not likely. Anyway we don't care much for scientists here; always poking their noses into other folks' business and taking the side of the damned natives against their own kind."
Ricardo Holm raised the gun. Before he could shoot, Euphemia, who was standing beside him, picked up an ithyphallic brass statue of Aletshim, the fertility-god of the Fshi, from the gubernatorial desk and brought it down on her spouse's head.
Before Holm could even roll out of his chair to the floor, Brisson pounced upon him and snatched the gun from his limp hand.
"He doesn't seem badly hurt," he said after a brief examination."But what shall I do now, me?"
"Your rocket leaves in a couple of hours, doesn't it?"
"Yes. You mean I should go and catch it? But my exit permit?"
"I'll forge Ricardo's signature."
"That is wonderful. But why...?"
"Because you're taking me with you, "
"What?" cried Brisson.
"Certainly. You don't think I want to be around when this awful husband of mine comes to, do you? I can't stand the stinker even when he's in a good humor, and now... Why do you suppose I eloped with Ivan Dolgoruki?"
"Oh, ah." Brisson thought. So that was it! And such was the effect of the woman-shortage that Holm had been prepared to take her back with no more than a scolding. Brisson reflected. that his own wife would probably find out about this and make life hell for him when he got back, but she always made it hell for him anyway.
"The native servants are all out for the afternoon," continued Euphemia, "so there's nobody on the grounds but Lin, and he can drive us to the port. Help me drag a trunk down from the attic so I can throw a few dresses into it."
"I will do more than that." Brisson wrestled the governor's shirt off and tore it up to bind and gag him."I will get a couple of trunks and fill one with these relics your spouse has so villainously extorted from my poor colleagues. Perhaps I can return some of them to their rightful owners. And then I should like to see this species of assassin get them back!"
Euphemia Holm straightened up from the task of rolling the bound and unconscious governor into a closet."You are a funny fellow! Dolgoruki wasn't very bright, but at least at a time like this he wasn't thinking about archeological relics! Oh, well, I suppose that's science for you. The attic is this way."