Still centering the Vardian in his bolter, Frost got out a sliver gun from a locker and pointed it at the Vardian.

"Little but mighty," he said. "Thor-na'thor, this is it. Being shot by a sliver gun is rarely fatal, unless you're hit in a nerve center. But a wound from it produces tonic spasms of all the voluntary muscles. I was shot by one once; I'd rather have a major burn without anesthesia.

"Scott, hold out his hand."

Scott locked the Vardian's wrist in a tight grip and held the member out to Frost.

"Now," Frost said. "Why don't you Vardians die?"

Thor-na'thor laughed. "Torture, my boy?" he said. "It is too bad, I am afraid I shall look ridiculous. But there is no secret. You are too young to understand."

Frost drew a deep breath. His finger wavered on the lever of the sliver gun. Then he tossed the gun down on the cover of the locker and turned bitterly on his heel.

Scott released the Vardian's wrist. "As I thought," he said. "You'd better go, Thor-na'thor. I imagine we'll be starting back to Terra in a few hours."

"So soon?" the Vardian asked courteously. "We Vardians should like an opportunity to say farewell properly to our guests."

"I'm afraid so. I wish—"

"Would you like me to give you the projector back? You do not need to be ashamed; it is a very valuable thing."

"No, not that. I was wishing that the all-earth Central Committee would decide to send a commission to Vardia to investigate this business about Vardians never dying. But it's impossible; the committee has a great respect for local autonomy."

Handshakes, at Thor-na'thor's request, were exchanged. Their parting was friendly. As the Alceste took off on the first leg of the long return, Frost said: "I wonder what it was?"

Scott shook his head. "There might have been something. But we'll never know."

Thor-na'thor walked up the broad low steps of the library. He tipped back his head to look at the inscription over the big door; it was in the long-obsolete non-phonetic Vardian script, but he knew what it said.

At the threshold an attendant smiled at him and held out a basin for him to wash his 

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