An hour later, Kiley stood on the soil of Thaklaru's planet and looked around.

Welcome, the alien's voice said.

Kiley stood by the side of his spaceship and stared at the awesome sight. A vast chain of naked mountains sprang up like a row of gigantic teeth to the east—bare, jagged peaks stretching up into dim immensity, twenty and thirty and forty thousand feet in air. Wild savage-looking vegetation swept fiercely around him, trees well over a thousand feet high and looking to be a block wide at their base. Just at a distance of a few feet, a monstrous cliff reared straight upward toward the swirling black-and-gold clouds. It was a strange and utterly primitive world.

"Okay, I'm here!" Kiley shouted. "Where are you?"

I will be with you soon, the alien responded. Take the jewels from the ship.

"How do I decide which are yours and which are mine?"

Take them all. We will decide once they are out of the ship.

A sudden ripple of terror ran through Kiley, turning the little jewel-thief cold. He felt dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of Thaklaru's world. He wondered where the alien was, what sort of creature he might be.

Your curiosity will soon be ended, Thaklaru said. When you have brought the jewels out, I will appear.

Kiley shrugged and started to climb the catwalk that led into the ship. There was little sense in trying to argue with Thaklaru's abilities; if he didn't go willingly, the alien would only force him. He gathered the jewels into a double handful and brought them back outside, dropping them onto a bare patch of reddish-green soil. Returning, he brought the rest of them out.

"Okay," he said. "They're all there."

Good. They are lovely.

"Suppose you show up and let's divide these things," Kiley said. "I'm tired of your mental voice—let's hear the real thing."

Very well.

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