stay in the area to see if any lifeboats had been launched before the explosion. None of our space ships carry weapons so we could not possibly have attacked as you seem to believe. Your people rewarded out act of kindness with death. One of the men who brought you here lost a brother on that ship and although he might have looked a bit hostile he was still sent to bring you in from the testing site and even he would not have treated you as your people treated his brother."

Things were suddenly beginning to make sense to Joe as he recognized at last that he had indeed been captured by men of the planet Verna. Apparently there were no distinctions in clothing here as there were at home and he knew that the war had been caused by hasty action on the part of his people. He tried to explain how the mistake had happened. Rhena listened carefully and then answered: "We have known of your war- like tendencies for some time; and since we live in peace here on Verna we decided to avoid your people if possible. Now you force us to start a search for your planet for our own protection. Your people will not be harmed, but we have methods of pacifying belligerant individuals in our own society and those same methods should work as well on a planet full of people as they do on a single person."

Joe interruped: "Did one of your ships actually follow me when I went into and out of hyper-drive?" He was told that the Verna space ships had been doing that for over 200 years. The method by which he had been removed from his ship was a more recent development and Rhena refused to discuss the manner in which this had been done. Joe had another question. "If you were able to remove me from a moving ship you could easily have brought me here directly. Why was I left in the forest?" There was a simple reason for that as Rhena explained. "The only contact that we have had with your people caused the death of the entire crew of one of our ships. We knew that your patrols were looking for the planet Verna and two alternative plans of action for dealing with your people were proposed by our government leaders. One group urged that your people be deprived of the means of making war, followed by quarantine and isolation. The second group argued for an exchange between our two worlds provided your war-like tendencies could be controlled. For example, there is no official police force on Verna for the simple reason that there is almost no crime. If people show signs of criminal intent they voluntarily undergo medical treatment and we have developed machines which can alter the thought patterns to return the individual to a well adjusted mental state."

As an afterthought she added: "Speaking of medical treatment reminds me that you are to undergo a thorough examination by our

48