Baley said, “Well, I’m alone now.”

Gruer said, “I couldn’t speak freely in his presence. He’s an Auroran and he is here because he was forced on us as the price of having you.” The Solarian leaned forward. “There’s something more

to this than murder. I am not concerned only with the matter of who did it. There are parties on Solaria, secret organizations… .”

Baley stared. “Surely, I can’t help you there.”

“Of course you can. Now understand this: Dr. Delmarre was a Traditionalist. He believed in the old ways, the good ways. But there are new forces among us, forces for change, and Delmarre has been silenced.”

“By Mrs. Delmarre?”

“Hers must have been the hand. That doesn’t matter. There is an organization behind her and that is the important matter.”

“Are you sure? Do you have evidence?”

“Vague evidence, only. I can’t help that. Rikaine Delmarre was on the track of something. He assured me his evidence was good, and I believe him. I knew him well enough to know him as neither fool nor child. Unfortunately, he told me very little. Naturally, he wanted to complete his investigation before laying the matter completely open to the authorities. He must have gotten close to completion, too, or they wouldn’t have dared the risk of having him openly slaughtered by violence. One thing Delmarre told me, though. The whole human race is in danger.”

Baley felt himself shaken. For a moment it was as though he were listening to Minnim again, but on an even larger scale. Was everyone going to turn to him with cosmic dangers?

“Why do you think I can help?” he asked.

“Because you’re an Earthman,” said Gruer. “Do you understand? We on Solaria have no experience with these things. In a way, we don’t understand people. There are too few of us here.”

He looked uneasy. “I don’t like to say this, Mr. Baley. My colleagues laugh at me and some grow angry, but it is a definite feeling I have. It seems to me that you Earthmen must understand people far better than we do, just by living among such crowds of them. And a detective more than anyone. Isn’t that so?”

Baley half nodded and held his tongue.

Gruer said, “In a way, this murder was fortunate. I have not dared speak to the others about Delmarre’s investigation, since I wasn’t sure who might be involved in the conspiracy, and Delmarre himself was not ready to give any details till his investigation was complete. And even if Delmarre had completed his work, how would we deal with the matter afterward? How does one deal with hostile human

beings? I don’t know. From the beginning, I felt we needed an Earthman. When I heard of your work in connection with the murder in Spacetown on Earth, I knew we needed you. I got in touch with Aurora, with whose men you had worked most closely, and through them approached the Earth government. Yet my own colleagues could not be persuaded into agreeing to this. Then came the murder and that was enough of a shock to give me the agreement I needed. At the moment, they would have agreed to anything.”

Gruer hesitated, then added, “It’s not easy to ask an Earthman to help, but I must do so. Remember, whatever it is, the human race is in danger. Earth, too.”

Earth was doubly in danger, then. There was no mistaking the desperate sincerity in Gruer’s voice.

But then, if the murder were so fortunate a pretext for allowing Gruer to do what he so desperately wanted to do all the time, was it entirely fortune? It opened new avenues of thought that were not reflected in Baley’s face, eyes, or voice.

Baley said, “I have been sent here, sir, to help. I will do so to the best of my ability.”

Gruer finally lifted his long-delayed drink and looked over the rim of the glass at Baley. “Good,” he said. “Not a word to the Auroran, please. Whatever this is about, Aurora may be involved. Certainly they took an unusually intense interest in the case. For instance, they insisted on including Mr. Olivaw as your partner. Aurora is powerful; we had to agree. They say they include Mr. Olivaw only because he worked with you before, but it may well be that they wish a reliable man of their own on the scene, eh?”

He sipped slowly, his eyes on Baley.

Baley passed the knuckles of one hand against his long cheek, rubbing it thoughtfully. “Now if that—”

He didn’t finish, but leaped from his chair and almost hurled himself toward the other, before remembering it was only an image he was facing.

For Gruer, staring wildly at his drink, clutched his throat, whispering hoarsely, “Burning… burning…”

The glass fell from his hand, its contents spilling. And Gruer dropped with it, his face distorted with pain.

Daneel stood in the doorway. ‘What happened, Partner Eli—”

But no explanation was needed. Daneel’s voice changed to a loud ringing shout. “Robots of Hannis Gruer! Your master is hurt! Robots!”

At once a metal figure strode into the dining room and after it, in a minute or two, a dozen more entered. Three carried Gruer gently away. The others busily engaged in straightening the disarray and picking up the tableware strewn on the floor.

Daneel called out suddenly, “You there, robots, never mind the crockery. Organize a search. Search the house for any human being. Alert any robots on the grounds outside. Have them go over every acre of the estate. If you find a master, hold him. Do not hurt him” (unnecessary advice) “but do not let him leave, either. If you find no master present, let me know. I will remain at this viewer combination.”

Then, as robots scattered, Elijah muttered to Daneel, “That’s a beginning. It was poison, of course.”

“Yes. That much is obvious, Partner Elijah.” Daneel sat down queerly, as though there were a weakness in his knees. Baley had never seen him give way so, not for an instant, to any action that resembled anything so human as a weakness in the knees.

Daneel said, “It is not well with my mechanism to see a human being come to harm.”

“There was nothing you could do.”

“That I understand and yet it is as though there were certain

cloggings in my thought paths. In human terms what I feel might be the equivalent to shock.”

“If that’s so, get over it.” Baley felt neither patience nor sympathy for a queasy robot. “We’ve got to consider the little matter of responsibility. There is no poison without a poisoner.”

“It might have been food-poisoning.”

“Accidental food-poisoning? On a world this neatly run? Never. Besides, the poison was in a liquid and the symptoms were sudden and complete. It was a poisoned dose and a large one. Look, Daneel, I’ll go into the next room to think this out a bit. You get Mrs. Delmarre. Make sure she’s at home and check the distance between her estate and Gruer’s.”

“Is it that you think she—”

Baley held up a hand. “Just find out, will you?”

He strode out of the room, seeking solitude. Surely there could not be two independent attempts at murder so close together in time on a world like Solaria. And if a connection existed, the easiest assumption to make was that Gruer’s story of a conspiracy was true.

Baley felt a familiar excitement growing within him. He had come to this world with Earth’s predicament in his mind, and his own. The murder itself had been a faraway thing, but now the chase was really on. The muscles in his jaw knotted.

After all, the murderer or murderers (or murderess) had struck in his presence and he was stung by that. Was he held in so little account? It was professional pride that was hurt and Baley knew it and welcomed the fact. At least it gave him a firm reason to see this thing through as a murder case, simply, even without reference to Earth’s dangers.

Daneel had located him now and was striding toward him. “I have done as you asked me to, Partner Elijah. I have viewed Mrs. Delmarre. She is at her home, which is somewhat over a thousand miles from the estate of Agent Gruer.”