"Gawroi!" he exclaimed. "I've heard of you. This is a pleasure, a real pleasure."
Gawroi sat down, settling down and trying to mask his impatience while Quotis talked of various discoveries in Kedaki archaeology. Quotis was a garrulous fellow, he thought. Perhaps all Arcturans were garrulous; he did not know much about Arcturans: he hardly had had any desire to study the extra-Kedaki people, any of them.
"But, to your business," Quotis finally said. "I apologize, my friend. You should have stopped me. I'm sure you didn't come here to hear an old man talk."
Gawroi assured him it had been a great pleasure listening, then said, "There was an Earthman co-worker of mine at the College, a bright young fellow named Rhodes—you've heard of him?"
"No. Should I have?"
"Mr. Rhodes has been missing since the earthquake, Dr. Quotis. He had been assigned to the College by his home office in order to make a study of extra-terrestrial penal conditions, in this case, the penal conditions here on Kedak, in Junction City. He was at the prison at the time of the quake, and since every other person there has been accounted for, living or dead, and Rhodes has not...."
"Why come to me?"
"Because the Five Bureau tells us that a badly burned man was brought here, was treated by you. Tell me, doctor, was he an Earthman? Did he survive? Is he here now?"
"If he survived," said Quotis slowly, "wouldn't he have got in touch with you?"
Gawroi said, "We thought an injury, a blow on the head...."