"So speak up. Doc."

Wearily, he waited for her to tell him what the prob- lem was. His mind blurred.

". . . very ironic, really," she was saying. ". . . in a cage, yes, all those years. Naturally you would do any-

128.

;thing-nearly anything-to avoid such a trap again.

"The terrible irony. Barton, has been that your mind Is sound" as a rock but you wouldn't believe it. Your one great phobia, of course, was being caged. That was the only aspect out of normal range, and understandably.

"So you cheated on the early tests"-she sighed- -and I suppose I'll never know how you did it. At that point you probably were not safe to run loose, as you put it. But at the same time you were too valuable to - lock up."

Barton's head, he thought, was not only running loose;

it was baying at the full moon. He wished to hell some- body would say something that made sense.

"It ever occur to anybody to level with me?'*

"How could we? We didn't know, because you hid your real self so well." He had to admit she had a point there. Not that it mattered much, now.

"Besides, you wouldn't have listened. It had been too long since you had been able to trust anyone, since you had had anyone you could trust." And was there anyone now? Yes-Limila. But what could she do?

"Barton, you came home broken, like Humpty Dumpty. And gradually you have put yourself together again. No one else could have done it for you."

All the king's horses. That didat make sense, either.

Humpty Dumpty was an egg,. If Barton was an egg, he was a very bad one.

. "I don't know what you're talking about Maybe you do, but I don't."

"You do. Barton. Think about it: In spite of your ! hatred, your quite natural hatred for the Demu, you took ; pity on Eeshta and then befriended her. You stood by :,. Limila when you literally couldn't stand the sight of her : -Tm sorry, Limila, but I have to make him see-and it was largely your doing that she is as she is now. You-"

Barton shook his head. She'd made it sound good for '. a minute, but he couldn't buy it. "I threw Skinner through the screen door. Closed."

"That was early on, and he was a nincompoop, be- sides. But yes. Barton; at that time, before I'd met you, ; you were one small hesitation away from custodial care.

My hesitation.

;, "But-I Aside from guarding your mental privacy, ;you were cooperative. You worked with Tarieton and Kreugel; you worked hard. You trained pilots and in-

129.

structors. You proposed a plan to bring other races to- gether to help us against the Demu menace. You insisted against all odds upon going back to face that menace again, personally. And when you thought I was the worst possible threat to you-"

Well, she'd had to get to it sooner or later. Now, at last, she was making sense. "Yen; I busted your muscle boy's face, and kidnapped you."

"He's not a muscle boy; he really is an intern. It was his own fault. I warned him to be careful. But either he didn't take you seriously, or you were simply too fast for him."

"What difference does it make?" Barton was tired, very tired. "I blew it, the whole bit. Let's get it over with.

I'm not going back in any cage, is all. Not alive."

For a small woman. Dr. Fox heaved a very large ex- asperated sigh. "Barton, it is time you stopped being so singleminded. As I said . . . when you thought me the worst possible threat to you, you. still would not hurt mel Is that the reaction of a man who isn't safe to run loose?"

"I kicked your ass pretty hard, there." Why were they talking so reasonably?

"Oh, thati I've fallen harder, at the skating rinki" Her gaze dropped. "Well, almost . . ." Abruptly, she turned to Limila. "Is there any way, do you think, to change the mind of this stubborn man of yours?"

"I do not know. Dr. Fox, but / believe you."

She had turned against him! Now they had him al- most in a cage, and Limila was on their side.

There was nothing left. He had to get out. Where to go? No matter; there had to be a place. Smash Arleta Fox and go!

But she-she was small, and female. He didn't know ... The walls, it seemed to him, were turning gray.

"Limilal" the woman said. "Help me. Quickly!"

-^ One at each side, holding him, they kept Barton from falling as his knees began to buckle. He shook his head, tried to speak but could not It was Dr. Fox who spoke.

"Barton, cant you believe that I mean you no harm?"

He beard her as from a great distance, but he felt her pressed as closely to him on one side as Limila was on the other. And now his legs supported him again. His arms came to life; be held both women, fiercely. He looked at the walls, and they were not gray. Not gray at alL

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'^ "Shit!" he said. "Barton, you always were the dumbest -* man in the world!"

Neither woman contradicted him*

Two days later, right on schedule, the First Expedition lifted for Tilara. Barton had had Limila give Tarleton the necessary coordinates over the viewscreen before they left the Demu ship, as soon as Arleta Fox had an- nounced all-clear and sent the guards home.

Barton found himself regretting that Dr. Fox couldn't have come along with the fleet. It was a damned shame, he thought, that he'd wasted his opportunity to get better acquainted with that tough little bulldog mind of hers.

She was a winner, that one. And Barton always liked a winner.

131.

The Learning of Eeshta

Author's note: the astute reader will notice that in this short story I have taken certain liberties with the order of some events that occur in "Cage a Man" and "The Proud Enemy."

-F.M.B.

- The young person is surrounded by the animals. In this '^ room on their planet Earth-a strange room, all plane -- surfaces and right angles-Eeshta is their captive. One of them has taken its robe and hood; under the odd dis- crete lighting sources, the smooth exoskeleton shines ivory tinged with red. Eeshta is one of the Demu and eggbom; the symmetry of its head is broken only by the eyes and their brow ridges, the nostril openings and serrated chewing-Ups below, and the slightly flanged ' earholes.

The heads of the animals are marred by fleshy and / fibrous growths. Although their general shape is accept- .^ able-head and body, arms and legs-they do not have ^ correct appearance. None but eggborn Demu have cor- f.y rect appearance without aid. When captured animals .*; learn to speak as Demu and thus earn citizenship, they ,.', are given whatever aid is needed.

^ But now it is Demu who are captive-the young ^ Eeshta, its egg-parent Hishtoo, and three not eggbom.

- Taken by an escaped animal named Barton, they are Y; brought in Hishtoo's ship from the Demu planet Ashura ^ to Earth. Although its arm was broken in the struggle of ^ capture, Eeshta no longer fears Barton, for Barton en-

- cased the arm for healing and offered no further injury