When I went back and told Donovan, he still hated to let go. "You know," he told the sneering little meter-reader, "we can still throw you in the can."
"What for?"
"Trespassing, Breaking and entering."
"Oh, yes. But you won't."
"And why not?"
"Because it would be too small a triumph and you know you would be acting from spite. It would diminish your stature in your own eyes."
Donovan was trying to swallow his helpless wrath when I remembered something Dalrymple had said. "Listen, punk. Exactly where did you come from?"
"That's right. You made some funny cracks. You said, to quote, 'This is certainly a stupid world you live in. A world of idiots.' You also said, 'I've just arrived recently.' Now it occurs to me—"
"That I might have come from a place beyond this planet you call Earth?"
"No. That you're a crackpot—a psycho—and maybe we'd better hold you."