"The temple bells--"
"So what?"
"That's the call to the testing. It's an emergency call. It means us."
He saw unease appear momentarily on the face of his son and the men
with him, then he saw it shrugged away. "If we have to pass some kind
of a test to do business with these fools, all right. We'll pass it."
"I hope," Boyd Larkin whispered. Already the elders had put in their
appearance and were coming toward them. They carried with them the long
metal rods like the one Malovar carried and which were the sign of
their office.
"They come to take us to the place of the testing," Larkin said. He
straightened his shoulders. The Martian elders bowed politely and
motioned him to precede them.
Neither his son nor the men with him liked the idea. They did not know
what was going to happen. They would have preferred to go elsewhere.
But Larkin was going and they could hardly let him out-face them.
Besides, they had _Kell_ guns. So what danger could they meet that they
could not overcome?