He grinned at the other with his ugly expression of petty triumph and added, "Ya got nerve to try it after a fair warning?"
"Perhaps not," admitted Trolla.
"Huh! Ya got some sense after all. Why don't ya just go away an' let me alone? Nobody ever gave your bunch jurisdiction out here. I bet this planet was never even reported, was it?"
"It's not on record," Trolla confirmed. "As far as I know, the only humans to reach it are you and I—and I almost turned back. How you picked it up, I don't know, but I was playing a hunch when I picked up your distress call."
Quasmin leaned back in more relaxed fashion.
"Well, ya got a problem," he grinned. "I ain't leavin' here with ya, an' what chance have ya got of bringin' a judge an' jury out here? I gotta right to a fair trial with legal an' psychiatric advice!"
Trolla took two steps to lean his shoulder against a corner of the hut. The ill-constructed joint sagged under his weight.
"Didn't it occur to you that you're having your trial right now?" he asked.
That reached him, he thought, with a certain ironic satisfaction.
Quasmin glared at him in outraged disbelief. He spat on the ground and demanded, "What're ya doin'? Settin' yourself up as judge an' jury all by yourself?"