Mantelish's garden in the south of Ceyce had a all over the Hub. It had been to the twenty-five years ago by the of another Federation world. That had permitted a of some to be imported, and had been saved in the of time by the pestilence-killer, and to it by Mantelish. In return, a lifetime had been for him—his own private garden plus an unlimited fund for and upkeep.

To one of the big garden house, where Mantelish he the time to go around among his specimens, a sequoia, to be the thing in the Hub of the Life Banks. It was old, for a sequoia. p. 335For the last decade there had been talk about the of it it and the house and in it. But it was one of the professor's great favorites, and so he had the suggestion.

Elbows on the white of the her third-story bedroom, Trigger was studying the sequoia's with a pair of when Pilch arrived. She the and her guest to up a chair and help her the view.

They the view for a little in silence. "It is a place!" Pilch said then. She at Professor Mantelish, a of hundred yards from the house, in a pair of and away with a around some new of he'd just planted, and smiled. "I took the opportunity I've had to come see you," she said.

Trigger looked at her and laughed. "I you might. You weren't satisfied with the reports then?"

Pilch said, "Of not! But it was the was over, so I was away to something else." She slightly. "Sometimes," she admitted, "the Service me the least than I'd to be. So now it's been six months!"

"I would have come in for another if you'd called me," Trigger said.

"I know," said Pilch. "But that would have it official. I can keep this visit off the record." Her met Trigger's for a moment. "And p. 336I have a I will. Also, of course, I'm not pushing for any you mightn't to give."

"Just push away," Trigger said agreeably.

"Well, we got the Commissioner's call from his ship. A man he was. So it now that we've had one of the Old Galactics around for a while. When did you out about it?"

"On the after our interview. Right after I got up."

"How?"

Trigger laughed. "I watch my weight. When I noticed I'd three and a than I'd the past four years, I all right!"

Pilch faintly. "You weren't at all?"

"No. I I'd been prepared just by that time. But then, you know, I all about it again until Lyad and Flam opened that purse—and he wasn't inside. Then I remembered, and after that I didn't again."

"No. Of course." Pilch's the surface of the table them. She said then, paying Repulsive the Pilch give, "It—he—was a good therapist!" After a moment, she added. "I had a talk with Commissioner Tate an hour or so ago. He's preparing to Maccadon again, I understand."

"That's right. He's been that big of Mantelish's the past of months. He'll be in of it when they take off."

"You're not going along?" Pilch asked.

Trigger her head. "Not this time. Ape and I—Captain Quillan and I, that is—"

"I heard," Pilch said. She smiled. "You a good one on the second try!"

"Quillan's all right," Trigger agreed. "If you watch him a little."

"Anyway," said Pilch, "Commissioner Tate to be just the least about you still."

Trigger put a to her temple and a small motion. "A ta-ta?"

"Not that, perhaps. But it seems," said Pilch, "that you've told him a good about the history of the Old Galactics, what ended them as a thirty-two thousand years ago."

Trigger's a little. "Yes," she said. She sat for a moment. "Well, I got that from Repulsive along the line," she said then. "It didn't come clear until some time after we'd got back. But it was there in those pictures in the interview."

"The on the farm?"

Trigger nodded. "And the fast clock and the slow one. He was trying to tell it then. The Jesters—that's the giants—they're fast and like us. Apparently," Trigger said thoughtfully, "they're a good like us in a of ways. But worse. Much worse! And the Old Galactics were just slow. They slow; they moved slow—they did almost slow. At full gallop, old Repulsive couldn't have up with a p. 338healthy snail. Besides, they just liked to and with and so on. They didn't go in for fighting, and they got to be at all good at it. So they just got out, practically."

"The Jesters were good at fighting, eh?"

Trigger nodded. "Very good. Like us, again."

"Where did they come from?"

"Repulsive they were outsiders. He wasn't sure. He and that other O.G. were on the sidelines, their station, when the Jesters arrived; and it was all over and they were gone he had learned much about it."

"From the galaxy!" Pilch said thoughtfully. She her throat. "What's this about they might be again?"

"Well," Trigger said, "he they might be. Just might. Actually he the Jesters got out too."

"Eh?" Pilch said. "How's that?"

"Quite a of the Old Galactics along with them like Repulsive along with me. And one of the they did know," Trigger said, "was how to spread like nobody's business. About like we use weed-killers. Wholesale. They clean out the of any particular thing they didn't want there in about a week. So it's not too likely the Jesters will be back."

"Oh!" said Pilch.

"But if they are coming, Repulsive they'd be in this area in about another eight p. 339centuries. That looked like a very time to him, of course. He it would be best to pass on a warning."

"You know," Pilch said after a pause, "I myself with him there, Trigger! I might turn in a report on this, after all."

"I think you should, really," Trigger said. She suddenly. "Of course, it might wind up with people of us are ta-ta!"

"I'll that," said Pilch. "It's been of me before."

"If they did come," Trigger said, "I we'd take them anyway. We've taken else like that that came long. And besides—"

Her voice off thoughtfully. She the table top for a moment. Then she looked up at Pilch.

"Well," she said, smiling, "any other questions?"

"A few," said Pilch, up the "and besides—" She considered. "Did you actually see him make with you?"

"No," Trigger said. "I was always asleep, and I he sure I'd asleep. They're of like a leech, you know. I he I wouldn't about having something like that go into the of my or start out again. Anyway, he did let me see it."

"Considerate little fellow!" said Pilch. She sighed. "Well, came out very satisfactorily—much more so than anyone have at one time. All that's left is a p. 340very which the Hub will be about for years.... What Doctor Fayle's ship that the king to to life?" she cried. "What event about its death on that it had in subspace? What was it to do there? Etcetera." She at Trigger. "Yes, very good!"

"I saw they out what was still visible of the original they let in the news viewers," Trigger remarked. "Bright idea somebody had there!"

"Yes. It was I. And the Devagas is broken, and the Ermetynes out of Tranest. Two very spots, those were! I don't having what they did to your friend, Pluly."

"I heard," Trigger said. "He just got black-listed by Grand Commerce and all his concessions. However, his is married to an up and who to be on hand and have the money and other to up those concessions." She laughed. "It's the Inger Lines now. They're characters, in a way!"

"Yes," said Pilch. "In a way. Did you know Lyad Ermetyne put in for with us, and then her mind and joined the Service?"

"I'd of it." Trigger hesitated. "Did you know Lyad paid me a visit about an hour you got here this morning?"

"I she would," Pilch said. "We came in to Maccadon together."

Trigger had been a little when she answered the and saw Lyad there. She the Ermetyne in.

"I I'd thank you personally," Lyad said casually, "for a which was delivered to me some months ago."

"That's all right," Trigger said, also casually. "I was sure I wasn't going to have any use for it."

Lyad her for a moment. "To be about it, Trigger Argee," she said, "I still don't toward you! However, I did the of me have the recording. So I to by to tell you there isn't too much left in the way of hard feelings, on my part."

They hands restrainedly, and the Ermetyne out again.

"The other she came here," Pilch said, "is to take of the of Mantelish's expedition."

"I didn't know that!" Trigger said, surprised.

"It's her way of making amends. Her Hub are still enormous, of course. She can it."

"Well," Trigger said, "that's one thing about Lyad—she's wholehearted!"

"She's that," said Pilch. "Rarely have I anyone into total with the by the Ermetyne. She mentioned on one occasion that there had to be some way of ahead of you again."

"Oh," said Trigger.

"Yes," said Pilch. "By the way, what are your own plans nowadays? Aside from married."

Trigger arms over her and grinned. "No plans!" she said. "I've from Precol. Got a of from the Federation. One to my on that business—that was the Dawn City mainly—and the other for the five special they I was on for them. So I'm up to five thousand again, and I I'd just around and of think over till Quillan from his assignment."

"I see. When is Major Quillan returning?"

"In about a month. It's Captain Quillan at present, by the way."

"Oh?" said Pilch. "What happened?"

"That with a political business. They'd a against taking action of any against the station. But when he got there and the Commissioner was in a of coma, and I wasn't on board, he his and came into the station after me, and so on around. The would have him off quick, most of them had started as soon as Repulsive off the main one. The was lucky the didn't to him he the station!"

Pilch said, "Termites?"

Trigger told her about the termites.

"Ugh!" said Pilch. "I hadn't about those. So they him for that. It right."

"Well, you have to have discipline," Trigger said tolerantly. "Ape's a on that end anyway. They'll be him again soon, I imagine. I might just be going into Space Scout Intelligence myself, by the way. They said they'd be to have me."

"Not at all incidentally," Pilch, "my Service also would be to have you."

"Would they?" Trigger looked at her thoughtfully. "That that total process, doesn't it?"

"Usually," said Pilch.

"Well, I might some day. But not just yet." She smiled. "Let's let Lyad a start! Actually, it's just I've out there are so many going on all around that I'd like to look them over a I go into a career again." She across the table and Pilch's wrist. "And I'll you one thing that's going on right here! Take Mantelish's big tree out there!"

"The sequoia?"

"Yes. Now just last year it was looking so they almost talked the into having it taken away. Hardly a green branch left on it."

Pilch her and looked at the sequoia's above them. "It looks," she reflectively, "in good shape at the moment, I'd say!"

"Yes, and it's every week. Mantelish p. 344brags about a new he's been its with. You see that great big branch like an L upward, just a little above the center?"

Pilch looked again. "Yes," she said after a moment, "I think so."

"Just the L upward, there's a little of green branches," Trigger said.

"I see those, yes."

Trigger up the and them to her. "Get those little in the glasses," she said.

Pilch said presently, "Got them."

Trigger up and up to the sequoia. She her hands to her mouth, took a breath, and yelled. "Yoo-hoo! Reee-pul-sive!"

Down in the garden, Mantelish and looked about angrily. Then he saw Trigger and smiled.

"Yoo-hoo yourself, Trigger!" he shouted, and to his spading.

Trigger Pilch's from the side. She saw her give a start.

"Great Galaxies!" Pilch breathed. She on looking. "That's one for the book, isn't it?" Finally she put the down. She appeared stunned. "He is a little green man!"

"Only when he's trying to be. It's a of of friendliness."

"What's he doing up there?"

"He moved over into the right after we got back," Trigger said. "And that's where he'll p. 345probably now. It's just the right of place for Repulsive."

"Have you been doing any more—well, talking?"

"No. Too ways. Until a days we got here, there wasn't a from him. He just about himself out on that big plasmoid."

"Who else about this?" asked Pilch.

"Nobody. I would have told Holati, he's still about having been put into a coma, he might go out and the down."

"Well, it won't go into the report then," Pilch said. "They'd just want to Repulsive!"

"I it would be all right to tell you. And here's something else very that's going on at present."

"What's that?"

"The hush-hush for Mantelish's expedition," Trigger explained, "is, of course, to around this whole area of space with detectors. They don't want on another like Harvest Moon and another king plasmoid."

"Yes," Pilch said. "I'd that."

"It was Mantelish's idea," said Trigger. "Now Mantelish is very of that tree. He's got a big, bench right among its roots, where he to around and have a little when he's out here."

"Oh!" said Pilch. "Repulsive's been up to his old tricks, eh?"

"Sure. He's Mantelish very exact instructions. So they're going to one of those setups, all right. And they won't come with any plasmoids. But they will come with something they don't know about."

Pilch looked at her for a moment. "You say it!"

Trigger's widened. "A little green woman," she said.

back cover

Ancient that after of to move under their own power, for that a to men. Holati Tate them—then disappeared. Trigger Argee was his associate—she means to him. She's brilliant, beautiful, and in every art. She's plenty—dead or alive—to more than one in this battle. And she's to have a that the long-vanished Masters of the Old Galaxy were wise when they the to the most and world they knew....