"Murgatroyd," said Calhoun casually, "has found another kind of edible nut. Terrestrial, too, like half the living things we've seen. Only the stuff crowding the glaciers seems to be native. The rest originated on Earth and was brought here, some time or another."
Hunt nodded. He seemed to find some difficulty in speaking.
"I've been talking to Pat," he said at last.
"The son-in-law," observed Calhoun, "who has to thank you not only for your daughter and his life, but for your public career in Two City which qualified you to perform a marriage ceremony. I hope he was respectful."
Hunt made an impatient gesture.
"He says," he protested, "that you haven't done anything either to Nym or to him to keep them from dying!"
Calhoun nodded.
"That's true."
"But ... they should die! Nym should die of the Three City sickness! And Three City people have always said that we had a sickness too ... that did not harm us but they died of!"
"Which," agreed Calhoun, "is undoubtedly historical fact. Its current value is that of one factor in an isolation syndrome and consequently a complicating factor in the Crusoe health problem here. I've let Nym and Pat go untreated to prove it. I think there's only a sort of mass hypochondria based on strictly accurate tradition. Which would be normal."