«I'm not doing anything of the sort! I'm just trying to keep him out of trouble. It's for his own good.»

Jubal snorted. «That's the excuse they gave the tomcat before his operation.»

«Oh!» Jill appeared to count ten. She said bleakly, «This is your house, Doctor Harshaw, and we are in your debt. I will fetch Michael at once.» She stood up.

«Hold it, Jill.»

«Sir?»

«Sit down — and quit trying to be as nasty as I am; you don't have my years of practice. Now let's get something straight: you are not in my debt. Impossible — because I never do anything I don't want to. Nor does anyone, but in my case I know it. So please don't invent a debt that does not exist, or next you will be trying to feel gratitude — and that is the treacherous first step toward complete moral degradation. You grok that?»

Jill bit her lip, then grinned. «I'm not sure what “grok” means.»

«Nor I. I intend to go on taking lessons from Mike until I do. But I was speaking seriously. “Gratitude” is a euphemism for resentment. Resentment from most people I do not mind — but from pretty little girls it is distasteful.»

«Why, Jubal, I don't resent you — that's silly.»

«I hope you don't … but you will if you don't root out of your mind this delusion that you are indebted to me. The Japanese have five ways to say “thank you” — and every one translates as resentment, in various degrees. Would that English had the same built-in honesty! Instead, English can define sentiments that the human nervous system is incapable of experiencing. “Gratitude”, for example.»

«Jubal, you're a cynical old man. I do feel grateful to you and I shall go on feeling grateful.»

«And you are a sentimental young girl. That makes us a complementary pair. Let's go to Atlantic City for a weekend of illicit debauchery, just us two.»

«Why, Jubal!»

«You see how deep your gratitude goes?»

«Oh. I'm ready. When do we leave?»

«Hummph! We should have left forty years ago. The second point is that you are right; Mike must learn human customs. He must take off his shoes in a mosque, wear his hat in a synagogue, and cover his nakedness when taboo requires, or our shamans will burn him for deviationism. But, child, by the myriad aspects of Ahriman, don't brainwash him. Make sure he is cynical about it.»

«Uh, I'm not sure I can. Mike doesn't seem to have any cynicism in him.»

«So? Well, I'll lend a hand. Shouldn't he be dressed by now?»

«I'll go see.»

«In a moment. Jill, I explained why I am not anxious to accuse anyone of kidnapping Ben. If Ben is unlawfully detained (to put it at its sweetest), we have not crowded anyone into getting rid of evidence by getting rid of Ben. If he is alive, he stands a chance of staying alive. But I took other steps the first night you were here. You know your Bible?»

«Uh, not very well.»

«It merits study, it contains practical advice for most emergencies. “ — every one that doeth evil hateth the light — ” John something or other, Jesus to Nicodemus. I have been expecting an attempt to get Mike away from us, for it didn't seem likely that you had covered your tracks. But this is a lonely place and we haven't any heavy artillery. There is one weapon that might balk them. Light. The glaring spotlight of publicity. So I arranged for any ruckus here to have publicity. Not just a little that might be hushed up — but great gobs, world wide and all at once. Details do not matter — where cameras are mounted and what linkages have been rigged — but if a fight breaks out here, it will be seen by three networks and hold-for-release messages will be delivered to a spread of V.I.P. s — all of whom would like to catch our Honorable Secretary General with his pants down.»

Harshaw frowned. «But I can't maintain it indefinitely. When I set it up, my worry was to move fast enough — I expected trouble at once. Now I think we are going to have to force action, while I can still keep a spotlight on us.»

«What sort of action, Jubal?»

«I've been fretting about it the past three days. You gave me a glimmering of an approach with that story of what happened in Ben's apartment.»

«I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Jubal. I didn't think anybody would believe me — and it makes me feel good that you do.»

«I didn't say I believed you.»

«What? But you — »

«I think you told the truth, Jill. But a dream is a true experience of a sort and so is a hypnotic delusion. But what happens in this room during the next hour will be seen by a Fair Witness and by cameras which are — » He pressed a button. « — rolling now. I don't think Anne can by hypnotized when she's on duty and I'll lay odds that cameras can't be. We will find out what kind of truth we're dealing with — after which we can consider how to force the powers-that-be to drop the other shoe … and maybe figure a way to help Ben, too. Go get Mike.»

Mike's delay was not mysterious. He had tied his left shoe-string to his right — had stood up, tripped himself, fallen flat, and jerked the knots almost hopelessly tight. He spent the rest of the time analyzing his predicament and slowly getting the snarl untied and the strings correctly tied. He was not aware that he had taken long but was troubled that he had failed to repeat correctly something which Jill had taught him. He confessed his failure even though he had it repaired when she came to fetch him.

She soothed him, combed his hair, herded him in. Harshaw looked up. «Hi, son. Sit down.»

«Hi, Jubal,» Valentine Michael Smith answered gravely, sat down — waited.

Harshaw said, «Well, boy, what have you learned today?»

Smith smiled happily, then answered — as always with a pause. «I have today learned to do a one-and-a-half gainer. That is a jumping, a dive, for entering our water by — »

«I know, I saw you. Keep your toes pointed, knees straight, and feet together.»

Smith looked unhappy. «I rightly did not it do?»

«You did it very rightly, for a first time. Watch Dorcas.»

Smith considered this. «The water groks Dorcas. It cherishes him.»

«“Her.” Dorcas is “her,” not “him.”»

«“Her,”» Smith corrected. «Then my speaking was false? I have read in Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, published in Springfield, Massachusetts, that the masculine gender includes the feminine gender in speaking. In Hagworth's Law of Contracts, Fifth Edition, Chicago, Illinois, 1978, on page 1012, it says — »

«Hold it,» Harshaw said hastily. «Masculine forms do include the feminine, when you are speaking in general — but not when talking about a particular person. Dorcas is always “she” or “her” — never “he” or “him.”»

«I will remember.»

«You had better — or you may provoke Dorcas into proving just how female she is.» Harshaw blinked thoughtfully. «Jill, is the lad sleeping with you? Or one of you?»

She hesitated, then answered flatly, «So far as I know, Mike doesn't sleep.»

«You evaded my question.»

«Then you can assume that I intended to. However, he is not sleeping with me.»

«Mmm … damn it, my interest is scientific. Mike, what else have you learned?»

«I have learned two ways to tie my shoes. One way is only good for lying down. The other way is good for walking. And I have learned conjugations. I am, thou art[2], he is, we are, you are, they are, I was, thou wast — »

«Okay, that's enough. What else?»

Mike smiled delightedly. «To yesterday I am learning to drive the tractor, brightly, brightly, and with beauty.»

«Eh?» Jubal turned to Jill. «When was this?»

«Yesterday while you were napping, Jubal. It's all right — Duke was careful not to let him get hurt.»

«Umm … well, obviously he didn't. Mike, have you been reading?»