"Have you been doing any more—well, talking?"
"No. Too strenuous both ways. Until a few days before we got back here, there wasn't even a sign from him. He just about knocked himself out on that big plasmoid."
"Who else knows about this?" asked Pilch.
"Nobody. I would have told Holati, except he's still mad enough about having been put into a coma, he might go out and chop the sequoia down."
"Well, it won't go into the report then," Pilch said. "They'd just want to bother Repulsive!"
"I knew it would be all right to tell you. And here's something else very interesting that's going on at present."
"What's that?"
"The real hush-hush reason for Mantelish's expedition," Trigger explained, "is, of course, to scout around this whole area of space with planetary plasmoid detectors. They don't want anybody stumbling on another setup like Harvest Moon and accidentally activating another king plasmoid."
"Yes," Pilch said. "I'd heard that."
"It was Mantelish's idea," said Trigger. "Now Mantelish is very fond of that sequoia tree. He's got a big, comfortable bench right among its roots, where he likes to sit down around noon and have a little nap when he's out here."