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humidity, all began to change. And then something moved ahead.
    It was an old work-Ma, blinking, frail, opaque. Plainly, the other Mas on duty here had been long delinquent in denying her access to food. However, this was beside the present point.
    “Ah, food,” she said. “This is well, the Na. It is long since enough food has been supplied. Although what you bring is not of the best. When the ‘Parranto-Sire was still accessible there was more food. The Ma was then a dam and — ”
    She ceased her babbling and tugged at his burden. It scarcely moved.
    “I will help the Ma.”
    “That is well and proper, the Na. The Ma is fully capable of doing her stint, indeed, more, for she requires less rest than the younger, slothful Mas. Nevertheless it is well.”
    She kept a hand on it as she moved ahead, but little more. “The Ma will also guide the Na. Thus. Thus. Further on. Through here. Thus. Down. Ahead. Here begin the clusters. Be careful, the Na. Directly down the center, faltering neither to the right nor the left, and on no account brushing against the clusters, lest eggs adhere. Thus.”
    The chittering of newly hatched and hungry fry feeding was still in the Na’s mind when he returned at last to his place on the shelf. But there was so much in his mind that it did not dwell on inconsequential details.
    He had merely to do this again when he was ready. Merely to bring another body for the fry. Merely to move slightly to the left or the right as he passed through the clusters. The few adhering eggs could be in an instant transferred to and scraped off on an inconspicuous place in his body. This he would do during the deep rest period just before his departure for the many-pathed way. The exposure to his own body warmth could not, dared not, be long maintained, of course. But it need not be. Once among the vivipars called the Red Fish People, he the Na, would seek out immediately one of the natural chambers in the upper sub-surface rock, and transfer the eggs.
    And in time they would hatch and he would bring them food and as soon as the sex of the fry could be determined he would destroy all the males.
    And all the females would grow to become Mas and dams and of them and to them he would be the Sire — the Sire! — he would be the
only
Sire!
    And need never return to the world of the Chulpex at all …
    There seemed to him, as he emerged reluctantly from these thoughts and before he sank again into deep rest, to be a minor uncertainty, not quite a flaw. He sought for it. He found it. In order to bring another body for the fry he would need another body. Could he depend on the timely death of another old work-Na? No. No, he could not. It would be absurd to do so.
    The question of the source of a body, therefore, had for the present to remain unanswered. The Na did not let the hiatus bother him. For the moment the matter had to remain in abeyance.
    As he let himself drift off into deep rest his eyes once more roved and roamed around the shelves. The last thing he remembered was looking long and without disquiet at the breath aura of the Na 27 ‘Parranto 600.

CHAPTER THREE
    Joseph Bellamy rose from his desk and started for the fireplace, but a sudden pain made him wince and slump over. After a moment he straightened up, and stood considering what medicine he ought to take. He had, after all, a fairly wide choice. After settling on two tiny pills and one medium-sized capsule, and washing them down with a glass of well water, he continued on to the fireplace. It was late, the fire was beginning to ebb, and fetching and placing the great slabs of soft coal was a task beyond him. Already the large room had grown chill, away from the fire. He would move soon enough.
    For now, though, all he wanted was right there in the great baronial hearth. A place for one was set out on the seat of a tall chair doing duty as table, chair facing one of the two taller, deeper, very high-backed benches which faced each other at right