"No," said the pianist. "Because if they're trained to inflict suffering as a negative bribe to good conduct how are we to keep them from utilizing their training as a negative bribe to the end of exacting tribute?"
A historian unexpectedly spoke up: "In ancient days that technique was known as the 'shakedown racket'."
"Indeed," said the general practitioner, pondering again. "There must be some way of insuring good conduct," he brooded. "Why not set up two rival bodies of men to check on each other?"
"Because," said the specialist, now quite won over, "they would either join forces—disastrous to the common welfare—or they would struggle openly for supremacy and the victor would assume that he had the right to oppress common folk."
"I see," sighed the general practitioner. "How much farther?"
"As I remember it," said a radio engineer, "the message came from the plane as it lay half wrecked by their dwelling. That makes it about—there." He pointed, and silhouetted in the starlight they could see the outlines of a monoplane. "Type ten," said a transportation engineer, regretfully tightening his grip on an electric drill's ponderous bit. "Shall we kill him first or get the girl to safety?"
"Kill him first, I say," volunteered the historian. "All in favor?" There was a soft chorus of assent. "Well, then," said the historian, "let's get as close as possible before he wakes up."
Stealthily they crept into the clearing and approached the little shack of boughs and trunks which had been flung together.
"Not bad," whispered a structural operator. "Well chinked, ventilated—in a primitive way one couldn't wish for anything better."
The neuro-muscular specialist took a heavy pair of operative forceps from his bandolier, and pushed on the door. It swung open after offering only a slight resistance. The seven others crowded into the large room and distributed themselves strategically. The pianist squinted through the dark and whispered, "There he is. I mean they are." Lying on a sort of semi-permanent bower were the two outlanders, side by side.