II

Tang pulled his sidearm part way out before he noted that the man

standing in the doorway of one of the huts was unarmed. He was also

shoeless and bare to the waist. Sweat ran down the blond hairs on his

chest and a week's growth of blond whiskers sprouted from his face. The

visible portion of his features, and his candid blue eyes, were young,

but his temples were peppered with gray.

"Surely you can't be as surprised to see me as you seem," the stranger

said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bill Lutscher; and, of

course, you are the famous man-hunter, Sammy Tang."

Lutscher smiled and stepped from the doorway with his hand extended.

Tang gripped the hand unhesitatingly, astounded to find himself liking

the man. Then he remembered ruefully that Lutscher was famous for his

charm. In fact, that charm was the very quality that had indirectly

made him the sought-after man he was.

"I'm certain that the pleasure is more mine than yours," Tang said,

responding to the other's display of lightness.

"Won't you come in?" Lutscher asked. "Perhaps I can give you a drink? I

have saved a bottle just for this momentous occasion."

Tang acknowledged the invitation with a nod of his head. They walked

into the hut together. Lutscher had evidently brought most of the

movable furniture from his space ship with him, Tang observed, for the

room was quite well furnished.

"Be careful not to stumble over Bunzo," Lutscher said, nodding toward

a side wall of the room. Tang followed his gaze and saw that Bunzo was

one of the doughball pets that seemed so universal here. But Bunzo was

as large as an average-sized dog.

Strangely, while the little pets had intrigued Tang, he found this one

repulsive. It lay sprawled on the floor of the hut, its body gross and

over-fed, looking up at Tang with little pig eyes, mean and quiet. On

one side of its white skin was a dark patch shaped like a fist.

"He's a repulsive looking brute," Tang said.

"Isn't he though?" Lutscher agreed. "But he's company, and he has his

uses." Lutscher laughed: He was a laughing man. "I wouldn't trade him

for anything I can think of offhand," he said as he turned to a row of

boxes piled against the far wall of the hut. "Now let's see. Which box

is it in? Ah, here it is."

He turned and found himself staring at the pistol in Tang's hand.

"I'm afraid we'll have to reverse the roles," Tang said. "I'll be the

host--in my ship."

Lutscher seemed genuinely surprised. He staggered back a step and sank

heavily into a chair next to his pet. He held the bottle of whiskey

in his lap with one hand, while the other idly stroked the blubbery

head of the drowsing Bunzo. "For a minute I'd forgotten," he said,

recovering his composure. "You still think that you can take me away

from here, don't you? But of course you can't understand yet that the

cards are stacked against you."

"Is there anything you'd like to take with you when we leave?" Tang

asked.

"It won't work, Sammy," Lutscher warned.

"On your feet," Tang said.

Lutscher rose without hesitation and walked to the door ahead of Tang.

Outside they found a dozen of the natives waiting. Others were coming

up fast. They blocked the way with their bodies.

"You might kill a few of them," Lutscher said, "but you'll never get

away."

It took Tang only a second to weigh the odds and make his decision. "It

looks like the first round is yours," he said, putting up his gun.

They walked back into the hut and sat down. "Tell me," Tang said. "Am I

a prisoner?"

"Not at all," Lutscher answered. "You may leave anytime you like. But

you can't take me with you."

Tang eased himself down on the cot Lutscher offered and sat in deep

introspection. But not for long. He decided quickly that he must learn

more about the present set-up before he made his next move. Perhaps he

could get the information he needed from Lutscher. "What's the deal

here, Bill?" he asked. "Have they set you up as some sort of demi-god?"

Lutscher seemed eager to talk. "Part of the deal, as you call it, will

have to remain my secret," he said. "I'd be a fool to show you all my

cards. But ask any questions you care to. I'll answer some of them at

least."

"All right. How did you get word to your friends to stop me when I

started out with you? Or did you station them outside your door when I

first came?"

Lutscher shook his head. "I didn't, and, as you can see, they aren't

there now. But just try to take me out of here and they'll be back

before you can walk two steps. Incidentally, they call themselves

mahutes. The stick-insects are ankites, and the pets, like Bunzo here,

are clobers. Now you know the names of the only denizens of this world

I've seen so far."

"How did you know about this place?"

"In my business you either have something like this in reserve up

your sleeve, or the long arm of the law, represented by yourself, my

friend, will soon pull you in. Enough to say that I learned about it

from someone who had been here. I'll confess, though, that I had my

anxious moments coming in. I was afraid that the information I had

about the place might have been, ah ... colored, by the imagination of

my informer. But, as you can see, it turned out to be a very delightful

place."

"You know I'll never leave without you, don't you?" Tang asked

abruptly. "Why haven't you had me killed?"

* * * * *

"At first I planned that," Lutscher answered with friendly frankness.

"But after I investigated the situation, and understood it, I saw no

reason to do so. In fact, I have strong hopes of convincing you to stay

here of your own free will."

"You must have picked up a touch of madness somewhere along the line if

you think that."

"No, I don't think so," Lutscher said, growing very earnest. "Look at

me. What kind of a man do you see?"

"I see nothing except the man I'm going to bring in for trial."

"You must have my record," Lutscher said, disregarding the reply.

"And you've probably studied it and my characteristics until you know

me better than I know myself. Remember them? I'm the highstrung,

hypertension, ulcer type of guy. A doctor told me once that my

metabolism burns too fast.

"I've gotten into most of my trouble because of an inner drive too

great for my own good. I always had to try to change the status quo, to

incite unrest and rebellion among the natives of the occupied worlds,

to steal the unstealable, to pit one world against another. Is that the

kind of man you're seeing now?"

"No, it isn't," Tang said thoughtfully. "I'd best describe you now as

a contented man. If I didn't know better, I'd say you hadn't a care in

the world."

"And you'd be right," Lutscher said, leaning forward in his desire to

emphasize his sincerity. "You haven't been here long enough to feel it,

but this planet does something to you. I don't know what it is. I've

gained twenty pounds in the two months I've been here. I've lost my

unrest, my drive to change things. I'm happy now. Why should I want to

return to the outside where life is like a thin crust that you walk on

carefully, always afraid of breaking through? And some morning you'll

wake up and you'll have the key, the answer to the universe, and you

won't want to leave either."

"I've wondered briefly about you, myself," Tang said. "And I'll

admit you're not the type of man I expected to find. But I've formed

conclusions different than yours. And I don't envy you. A dope addict

has the same feeling you have when he's under the influence of the

drug. But I don't envy him. What have you been eating since you've been

here? Anything at all native to this planet?"

Lutscher nodded. "You may be right about that," he said. "I'm not so

stupid that I've missed thinking of it myself. At first I thought the

good feeling might be just the lethargy induced by the atmosphere's

high oxygen content and the greater gravity.

"But my final conclusion was pretty much the same as yours. During

the past month and a half I've lived exclusively on the diet of the

mahutes--that's the shoots you saw one of them gathering. But what do I

care about the source of my well-being? The only thing that concerns me

is that it's there."

"I'm afraid that to me the source would be more important," Tang said,

"and I'll stick to my own food. Right now everything looks very rosy to

you. But if it turns out that you've been eating a dangerous drug and

it begins to wreck your system, how will it look then? Especially if

you find that you can't break the habit?"

"But it's not dangerous," Lutscher insisted, "and I'll prove it to you.

Tomorrow we'll take a stroll through the village. I'll point out a few

things that will surprise you. I presume you'll be spending the night

with me?"

Tang nodded.