include farm labor, hotel staff, airport mechanics — indeed, workers of every description, and the Conservator looked the other way so long as the workforce was allowed no permanent residence.
A source of plentiful, cheap and docile labor had always been needed at Araminta Station. What could be more convenient than the folk who inhabited Lutwen Atoll, three hundred miles to the northeast? These were the Yips, descendants of runaway servants, fugitives, illegal immigrants, petty criminals and others, who at first furtively, then brazenly, had taken up residence on Lutwen Atoll.
The Yips fulfilled a need, and so were allowed at Araminta Station on six-month work permits. So much the Conservationists grudgingly allowed, but refused to yield an iota more.
At Riverview House, a mile south of the agency, lived the Conservator, the Executive Superintendent of Araminta Station. By the terms of the Charter, he was an active member of the Naturalist Society, a native of Stroma, the small Naturalist settlement on Throy. With the waning of the Society to little more than a memory, the directive necessarily had been interpreted loosely and — at least for this purpose, where no realistic alternative offered itself — all Naturalists resident at Stroma were considered equivalent to members of the Society.
A faction dedicated to 'advanced' ideology, calling itself the 'LPF, Peace and Freedom Party', began to champion the cause of the Yips whose condition they declared to be intolerable and a blot on the collective conscience. The situation could be relieved only by allowing the Yips to settle on the Deucas mainland. Another faction, the ‘Chartists,' acknowledged the problem, but proposed a solution not in violation of the Charter: namely, transferring the entire Yip population off-world. Unrealistic declared the LPFers, and ever more categorically criticized the Charter. They declared the Conservancy an archaic idea, non-humanist and out of step with 'advanced' thinking. The Charter, so they asserted, was in desperate need of revision, if only that the plight of the Yips might be ameliorated.
The Chartists, in refutal, insisted that both Charter and Conservancy were immutable. They voiced a sardonic suspicion that much of LPF fervor was hypocritical and self-serving; that the LPFers wanted to allow Yip settlement of the Marmaton Foreshore in order to set a precedent which would permit a few deserving Naturalists — no doubt defined as the most vigorous and ardent LPF activists — to establish estates for themselves out of the beautiful Deucas countryside, where they would employ Yips for servants and farmhands and live like lords. The charge provoked the LPFers to such violent spasms of outrage that cynical Chartists asserted that the vehemence of their protests only underscored their covert ambitions.
At Araminta Station, ‘advanced’ ideology was not taken seriously. The Yip problem was recognized, as real and immediate, but the LPF solution had to be rejected, since any official concessions would formalize the Yip presence on Cadwal, when all efforts should be exerted in the opposite direction, i.e. transfer of the entire Yip population to a world where their presence would be useful and desirable.
This conviction was reinforced when Eustace Chilke, the station airport manager, discovered that the Yips had long been systematically stealing from the airport warehouse. Their booty was primarily spare parts for the station flyers, which in due course could be assembled into whole flyers at Yipton. They also took tools, weapons, ammunition and energy packs, apparently with the connivance of one Namour co-Clattuc, Agency Commissioner of Temporary Labor, and in this connection Namour and Chilke came to blows. The two fought an epic battle. Namour, a Clattuc, fought with typical Clattuc flair and courage; Chilke fought a methodical backroom style: essentially a technique of backing the opponent up against a wall and pummeling him until he fell to the floor, exactly as Namour eventually found himself doing.
Chilke was born near the town ldola, on the Big Prairie of old Earth. Early in his life little Eustace was influenced by his grandfather Floyd Swaner, a collector of stuffed animals, old oddments, purple brlc-a-brac, rare books, and anything else which caught his fancy. When Eustace Chilke was a child, his grandfather presented him with a wonderful ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE, depicting all the inhabited worlds of the Gaean Reach, including Cadwal. The ATLAS stimulated young Eustace to such an extent that he became a wanderer half vagabond, half jack-of-all-trades.
The route which brought him to Araminta Station was devious but certainly not accidental. Chilke one day described the circumstances to Glawen:
“I was working as a tour-bus operator out of Seven Cities, on John Prestons World.' Chilke told how he became aware of a big pie-faced lady with lots of bosom, wearing a tall black hat, who joined Chilke's morning tour four days in succession. At last she engaged him in conversation, commenting favorably upon his conduct.
Chilke responded modestly: “It’s nothing special, just my stock in trade.'
The lady introduced herself as Madame Zigonie, a widow from Rosalia, a world to the back of the Pegasus Rectangle. After a few minutes of conversation she suggested that Chilke join her for lunch: an invitation which Chilke saw no reason to refuse.
Madame Zigonie selected a fine restaurant where they were served an excellent lunch. During the meal she encouraged Chilke to talk of his early years on the Big Prairie and the general facts of his family background. Presently, as if on sudden impulse, Madame Zigonie mentioned her clairvoyant powers which she ignored only at grave risk to herself, her fortunes, and all others involved in the revelations. “Perhaps you have wondered at my interest in you. The fact is that I must hire an overseer for my ranch and my inner voice insisted that you were the right and proper person for the position.'
“That is very interesting,' said Chilke cautiously. “The salary is high and you plan to pay a substantial advance?”
“You will be paid in the standard fashion, after you render the duties I will require of you.'
“Hmm,” said Chilke. The remark was ambiguous and Madame Zigonie, large, somewhat over-dressed, with small narrow eyes glinting from a broad-cheeked face the color of putty, lacked all appeal.
In the end Madame Zlgonie's inducements overcame his reluctance and Chilke became superintendent of the Shadow Valley Ranch on Rosalia.
Chilke's duties required that he direct the activities of a large workforce, composed entirely of indentured Yips brought to Rosalia by a labor contractor named Namour.
Chilke's puzzlement with circumstances became extreme when Madame Zigonie declared her intention of marrying him. Chilke refused the honor, and Madame Zigonie discharged him in a rage, though she neglected to pay his salary.
In the town Lipwillow on the Big Muddy River Chilke was approached by Namour and offered a job as airport manager at Araminta Station. Namour here far exceeded his authority, but Chilke managed to secure the post on his own merits. Madame Zigonie’s off-again on-again romantic interest and Namour's sympathetic assistance was a mystery to which he found no ready solution. Other even more urgent mysteries hung in the air. How many illicit flyers had the Yips constructed from the stolen parts? How many had they acquired by other means? If such existed, where were they located?
The superintendent of Bureau B was Bodwyn Wook: a small man, bald, yellow of skin; thin, active and sharp-eyed as a ferret. Bodwyn Wook was notable both for his caustic tongue and his indifference to the dictates of stylish convention. The discovery of the Yip thefts prompted him to a swift response. Yipton was raided; two flyers and a machine shop were destroyed
Another sinister discovery followed hard upon the first. Yips of the Araminta workforce were found to be armed with a variety of weapons, as if in preparation for a grand massacre of Agency personnel. The work-permits were instantly canceled; the Yips were sent back to Yipton. When questioned, Namour merely shrugged his shoulders and denied complicity in the affair. No one could prove differently and, indeed, it seemed incredible that the personable and popular Namour would involve himself in crimes so horrendous, and suspicion, while always latent, lost its edge as time went by. Namour proceeded with his regular routines, indifferent to lingering doubts.
Namour was a person impossible to categorize. He was strong, innately graceful and of good physique; his features were classically regular. He wore his clothes with flair and seemed to know everything worth knowing. At all times Namour conducted himself with an engaging deliberate ease and understatement, suggesting passion under careful control: an attribute which many ladies found appealing, and indeed Namour's name had been linked with many others, including both Spanchetta and Smonny, whom he apparently served on a continuing basis as a joint paramour, to the satisfaction of both.
Namour was not universally admired, especially at Bureau B. His critics considered him a stone-hearted
