"They might choose to starve," Boyd Larkin said.
"What?" the younger man gasped. "But that's silly. That's crazy. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. You're trying to pull a fast one."
"They're a strange people," Boyd Larkin said, ignoring his son's outburst. "Sometimes they seem to do crazy things though I have usually found that back of their craziness is a vein of such hard common sense that it is bewildering to us humans."
Roy Larkin was a little uncertain. "They've been dealing with you. They'll deal with us."
"That does not necessarily follow. What you do not understand is that they have a certain test, and that I have passed it."
"A test? Well, what is it. If you can pass it so can we. You haven't got anything that we haven't got."
An involuntary shudder passed over Larkin. "Perhaps. But this test isn't exactly easy." A sound came to his ears. Over the city of Sudal was flooding the sound of temple bells. The shudder came over him again, grew stronger.
His son's eyes were sharp on him. "What the hell are you shaking about?"
"The temple bells—"
"So what?"