"Wouldn't ever have knowed you was a detective," said the pilot, eyeing Magnus Ridolph reverently. "You don't look the type."

"Thank you," said Magnus Ridolph. "I'm glad to hear it."

The pilot appraised him. "You look more like a professor or a dentist."

Magnus Ridolph winced.

"Just what was them 'ghosts' the article speaks of, Mr. Ridolph?" the pilot inquired.

"Nothing whatever," Magnus Ridolph assured him. "An optical illusion."

"Oh," said the pilot.

"There's something I'd like you to do for me," said Magnus Ridolph.

"Sure - glad to be of help."

Magnus Ridolph scribbled on a page in his notebook. "Take this to the ship right away before it leaves. Give it to the radio operator, ask him to send it ulrad special."

The pilot took the message. "That all?"

"No," said Magnus Ridolph. "There's another ship leaving Starport for Moritaba in - let's see - in four days. Six days passage makes ten days. I should have a parcel on that next ship.

"I want you to meet that ship, take that parcel aboard your copter, deliver it to me here immediately. When I get that parcel I'll pay you two hundred munits. Does that satisfy you?"

"Yes," said the pilot. "I'm off right now."

"Also," said Magnus Ridolph, "there is need for secrecy. Can you keep a close tongue in your head?"

"Haven't heard me say much yet, have you?" The pilot stretched his arms. "I'll see you in about ten days."

"Er - do you have any extra wire and a spare power-pack?" inquired Magnus Ridolph. "I think I'll need some sort of protection."

Magnus Ridolph returned to his room with his suitcases and what electrical equipment the pilot was able to spare. A half hour later he stood back. Now, he thought, next move to the Men-men.

A face appeared at the door - narrow, purple-brown, big-eyed, with a long thin nose, slit mouth, long sharp chin.

"King he want you come eat." The face peered cautiously around the room, brushed the wires Magnus Ridolph had strung up. Crackle - spat. The native yelped, bounded away.

"Ho, ho!" said Magnus Ridolph. "What's the trouble?"

The native uttered a volley of angry syllables, gesticulating, showing his pointed white teeth. Magnus Ridolph at last understood him to say, "Why you burn me, eh?"

"To teach you not to steal from me," Magnus Ridolph explained.

The native hissed scornfully. "I steal everything you got. I great thief. I steal from king. Sometimes I steal everything he got. Then I be king. I best stealer in Challa, you bet. I steal king's crown pretty soon."

Magnus Ridolph blinked his mild blue eyes. "And then?"

"And then - "

"Yes - and then?" came a third voice, harsh, angry. King Kanditter sprang close to the native, struck furiously with a length of cane. The native howled and leapt into the bushes. Magnus Ridolph hastily disconnected the powerpack lest the king receive a shock and inflict a like punishment on himself.

Kanditter threw the cane stalk to the ground, gestured to Magnus Ridolph. "Come, we eat."

"I'll be with you right away," said Magnus Ridolph. He picked up his suitcases, disconnected the powerpack, slung it under his arm and presented himself to the king. "Your invitation comes as a pleasant surprise, your Majesty. I find that carrying my possessions everywhere gives me quite an appetite."

"You careful, eh?" said Kanditter with a wide thin-lipped grin.

Magnus Ridolph nodded solemnly. "A careless man would find himself destitute in a matter of minutes." He looked sidewise at the king. "How do you guard your own property? You must own a great deal - micromacs, powerpacks and the like."

"Woman, she watch now. Woman, she very careful. She lose - ugh!" He flailed his long dark arms significantly

"Women indeed are very useful," agreed Magnus Ridolph.

They marched in silence for a few yards.

"What you like telex for?" the king asked.

"The telex crystal," said Magnus Ridolph, "vibrates - shakes - very fast. Very, very, very, very fast. We use it to send voices to other stars. Voices go very far, very fast, when given shake with telex."

"Too much noise," was the king's observation.

"Where are your fields?" asked Magnus Ridolph ingenuously. "I've heard a great deal about them."

Kanditter merely turned him a side-glance, grinned his narrow grin.

Days passed, during which Magnus Ridolph sat quietly in his lodgings, reviewing recent progress in mathematics, developing some work of his own in the new field of contiguous-opposing programs.

He saw little of Mellish, who spent as much time as possible with the king - arguing, pleading, bluffly flattering, while Tomko was relegated to guarding the luggage.

Magnus Ridolph's barricade proved effective to the extent that his goods were safe so long as he sat within his room. When circumstances compelled him to walk abroad he packed everything into his suitcases, carried them with him. His behavior by no means set him apart or made him conspicuous.

Everywhere could be seen natives carrying their possessions in bags made from the thoraxes of large tree-dwelling insects. Mellish had fitted Tomko with a sack strapped to his chest and locked, in which reposed the objects named in the wager with Magnus ' Ridolph - or rather, those which still remained to him.

With disturbance Magnus Ridolph noted a growing ease and familiarity between Mellish and King Kanditter. They talked by the hour, Mellish plying the king with cigars, the king in his turn supplying wine. Observing this camaraderie, Magnus Ridolph shook his head, muttered. If Kanditter signed away any rights now, before Magnus Ridolph was ready to apply persuasion - what a fiasco!

His worst fears were realized when Kanditter strolled up to where he sat in the shade before his room.

"Good day, your Majesty," said Magnus Ridolph with urbane courtesy. Kanditter flipped a long black hand. "You come tonight. Rig eat, big drink - everybody come."

"A banquet?" inquired Magnus Ridolph, debating within himself how best to avoid participation.

"Tonight we make everybody know big new thing for Men-men. Mellish, he good man - fine man. He need telex, not hurt land. No noise, no bad man, lots of money."

Magnus Ridolph raised his eyebrows. "Have you decided then to award the franchise to Mellish?"

"Mellish good man," said the king, watching Magnus Ridolph interestedly.

"What will you derive personally from the agreement?" inquired Magnus Ridolph.

"How you say?"

"What will you get?"

"Oh - Mellish he make me machine that go round-round in circles. Sit in, music-noise come. Good for king. Name merry-go-round. Mellish he build five-dime store here in Challa. Mellish good man. Good for Men-men, good for king."

"I see," said Magnus Ridolph. .

"You come tonight," said Kanditter, and before Magnus Ridolph could state his excuses he passed on.

The banquet commenced shortly after sundown on the pavilion before the palace. Torches, hanging high in the trees, provided a flaring red light, glanced on the purple-brown natives, glinted on King Kanditter's crown and Magnus Ridolph's suitcases, these latter gripped firmly between their owner's knees.

There was little ceremony connected with the eating. Women passed around the loose circle of men, carrying wooden trays full of fruit, young birds, the shrimp-like insects. Magnus Ridolph ate sparingly of the fruit, tasted the birds, dismissed the dish of insects.

A tray came by with cups of native wine. Magnus Ridolph sipped, watching Mellish, as he talked and made jocose gesticulations near the king. Now the king arose and passed out into the darkness and Mellish occupied himself with his wine.

A great flare like a meteor - down from the darkness hurtled a great cloud of flame, past Magnus Ridolph's head, smashing into the ground at his feet in a great crush of sparks.