"Well, enough excitement for one day. If you are strong enough, tomorrow we can have the first of your visitors, people trying to identify you. I warn you, there will be hundreds, thousands."
"Any time you say," Rhodes replied eagerly. But behind the eagerness was a certain vague confusion. Why had the purple tints of his new skin stirred him so strangely? Purple. Kedaki skin color. What else did he expect?
The Director of the Five Bureau, the Kedaki Secret Police, said, "Stop acting like a fool, please."
"But sir," wailed the prison warden. "I tell you, the Earthman's body was not uncovered in what remained of the prison."
"What does that mean?" the Director demanded scornfully. "I have here the final earthquake casualty report for Junction City—shall I read it to you? There are over six thousand people still missing, my dear warden. Six thousand."
"Yes, I know," persisted the prison official. "But doesn't it seem strange that of all the inmates and guards at the prison, the Earth archaeologist alone is missing?"
"Nevertheless, we can assume that virtually all of those missing are dead, buried forever under the debris of the municipal disaster."
"Still, you know how important this Earthman is, what trouble he can cause...."
"I know," snapped the Director arrogantly, "But do you?"