"Do you speak on behalf of Priest-Kings?" asked Kog.

"I cannot," said Samos.

"That is interesting," said Kog.

"If you would speak with Priest-Kings," said Samos, "you must go to the Sardar."

"What are Priest-Kings?" asked Kog.

"I do not know," said Samos.

Such creatures, I gathered, had no clear idea of the nature of Priest- Kings.

They had not directly experienced Priest-Kings, only the power of Priest-Kings.

Like burned animals they were wary of them. Priest- Kings, wisely, did notchoose to directly confront such creatures. Not a little of the hesitancy andtentativeness of the militaristic incursions of such creatures was, I suspected,a function of their ignorance of, and fear of, the true nature and power of theremote and mysterious denizens of the Sardar. If such creatures should come toclearly understand the nature of the Priest-Kings, and the current restrictionson their power, in virtue of the catastrophic Nest War, I had little doubt butwhat the attack signals would be almost immediately transmitted to the steelworlds. In weeks the silver ships would beach on the shores of Gor.

"We know the nature of Priest-Kings," said Kog. "They are much like ourselves."

"I do not know," said Samos.

"They must be," said Kog, "or they could not be a dominant life form."

"Perhaps," said Samos. "I do not know."

The larger of the two creatures, during this exchange, was watching me. I smiledat him. Its ears twitched with annoyance. Then again it was as it had been,regal, savage, distant, unmoving and alert.

"Can you speak on behalf of the men of the two worlds?" asked Kog. This was areference, doubtless, to the Earth and, Gor.

"No," said Samos.

"But you are a man," said Kog.

"I am only one man," said Samos.

"Their race has not yet achieved species unification," said the larger of thetwo creatures, to his fellow. His remark, of course, was picked up by thetranslator and processed, as though it had been addressed to us.

"That is true," said Kog. I wondered, hearing this, beasts, either, had achievedspecies unification. I was inclined to doubt it. Such creatures, beingterritorial, individualistic and aggressive, much like men, would not be likelyto find the bland idealisms of more vegetative organisms interesting, attractiveor practical, Logical, and terrible, they would not be likely to find thefallacy of the single virtue, the hypothesis of social reductivism, alluring.

All creatures are not the same, nor is it necessary that they should be. Junglesmay be as appealing to nature as gardens. Leopards and wolves are aslegitimately ingredient in the order of nature as spaniels and potatoes. Speciesunification, I suspected, would prove not to be a blessing, but a trap and abane, a pathology and curse, a societal sanitarium in which the great and strongwould be reduced to, or must pretend to be reduced to, the level of theblinking, the cringing, the creeping and the tiny. To be sure, values areinvolved here, and one must make decisions. It is natural that the small andweak will make one decision, and the large and strong another. There is nosingle humanity, no single shirt, no correct pair of shoes, no uniform, even agray one that will fit all men. There are a thousand humanities possible. He whodenies this sees only his own horizons. He who disagrees is the denier ofdifference, and the murderer of the better futures.

"It is unfortunate," said Sardak, speaking to Kog, "that they have not achievedspecies unification. Else, once the Priest-Kings are disposed of, it would beeasier to herd them to our cattle pens."

"That is true," said Kog.

What Sardak said seemed to me, too, likely to be true. Highly centralizedstructures are the most easily undermined and subverted. Cutting one strand ofsuch a web can unravel a world. One hundred and eighty-three men once conqueredan empire.

"Can you speak on behalf of the Council of Captains, of Port Kar?" asked Kog.

"Only on matters having to do with Port Kar, and then after a decision of thecouncil, taken after consultation," said Samos. This was not exactly correct,but it was substantially correct. It seemed to me a suitable answer, under thecircumstances. The creatures, of course, would not be familiar with councilprocedures.

"You do, however, have certain executive powers, do you not?" inquired Kog. Iadmired the creatures. Clearly they had researched their mission.

"Yes," said Samos, guardedly, "but they are not likely to be involved in mattersof the sort with which we are here likely to be concerned."

"I understand," said Kog. "On behalf of whom, then, do you speak?"

"I speak," said Samos, rather boldly I thought, "on behalf of Samos, of PortKar, on behalf of myself."

Kog snapped off the translator and turned to Sardak. They conversed for a momentin their own tongue. Kog then snapped the translator back on. This time, almostinstantly, the small, conical red light began to glow.

"It is sufficient," said Kog.

Samos stepped back a bit.

Kog turned away, then, to a leather tube and, with his large, furred, tentaclelike digits, with their blunted claws, removed the cap from this tube.

I suspected that the two creatures did not believe Samos when he protested tothem that he could speak only on behalf of himself. At the least they would becertain that he would be significantly involved in the affairs of Priest-Kings.

They would seem to have little alternative, then, to dealing with him.

From the long, leather tube, Kog removed what appeared to be a large piece ofclosely rolled, soft-tanned hide. It was very light in color, almost white, andtied with string. There was a slight smell of smoke about it, probably from thesmoke of the turl bush. Such hides may be waterproofed by suspending them from,and wrapping them about, a small tripod of sticks, this set over a small fire onwhich, to produce the desiderated smoke, the leaves and branches of the turlbush are heavily strewn.

Kog placed the roll of hide on the table. It was not rawhide, but soft-tannedhide, as I have suggested. In preparing rawhide the skin, suitably fleshed, ispegged down and dried in the wind and sun. The hide may then, without furtherado, be worked and cut. This product, crude and tough, may be used for suchthings as shields, cases and ropes. Softening a hide, on the other hand, is amuch more arduous task. In soft tanning, the fleshed hide must be saturated withfats, and with oils and grease, usually from the brains of animals. These arerubbed into the hide, and worked into it, usually with a soft flat stone. Thehide is then sprinkled with warm water and tightly rolled, after which it is putaside, away from the sun and heat, for a few days. This gives the time necessaryfor the softening ingredients, such as the fats and oils, to fully penetrate theleather. The skin is then unrolled and by rubbing, kneading and stretching,hand-softened over a period of hours. The resulting product ranges from tan tocreamy white, and may be worked and cut as easily as cloth.

"You are familiar, are you not," asked Kog, with one known as Zarendargar?"

"Who is Zarendargar?" asked Samos.

"Let us not waste one another's time, said Kog.

Samos turned white.

I was pleased that, outside, on the platform of this anterior building of thetarn complex, there were several guards. They were armed with crossbows. Theiron bolts of these devices, weighing about a pound apiece, were capable ofsinking some four inches into solid wood at a range of some twenty yards. To besure, by the time the guards might be summoned into the building Samos and Imight be half eaten.

Kog looked closely at Samos.

"Zarendargar," said Samos, "is a well-known commander of the steel worlds, a wargeneral. He perished in the destruction of a supply complex in the arctic."