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human resources, not the material ones, that their success ultimately depended. She leaned back in her chair, bracing herself. Clearly Dennis Malone was going to come knocking at the door.
    In answer to his diffident tap, she called for him to enter, and he stood on the threshold with a look of faint surprise at seeing her rather than Hassan.
    “Ah—morning, Parvati,” he muttered. “Is Abdul around?”
    “He’s doing a tour of the island. We have a progress meeting today. Can I help you?”
    “Oh yes, of course. I’d forgotten.” Dennis seemed distracted, so that his eyes did not meet hers, and she surveyed him covertly while waiting for him to explain his business. She was alarmed at what she saw. His lids were puffy, most likely with lack of sleep, and there were deep lines seaming his forehead. His hands moved together nervously, as though possessed of independent life.
    Poor devil!
    Briskly, she said, “Well, I’m glad you’re here, anyway. I was just thinking yesterday I’d like to give you another checkup. Could you—?”
    “Oh, shut up, Parvati,” he said. There was no force behind the words. “What could another bunch of tests tell me that you don’t know already—that I don’t know still better because I’m on the inside? I’m a mess. I’m a wreck. About the only thing we can hope for is that I’ll sweat out my problem before it starts to bother anyone else.”
    “You’re exaggerating, Dennis.”
    “The hell I am.” He kicked around a chair, formed bentwood-fashion from slivers of the native woodplant, and slumped into it. “My trouble is that I’m a settler against my will, and not even the colony voting to give me the
Niña
to go home in would cure me, because I’d go crazy during the trip to Earth for fear sacrificing their spare ship meant the colonists were exterminated by something we haven’t come across and which they couldn’t run away from. Right? Don’t bother to answer. I just came in to tell Abdul that I need to go off by myself again.”
    “So soon? But you only came back from your last trip—”
    “It’s been two weeks, hasn’t it? If I’d picked up any diseases or anything, they’d have shown by now. Andwhat other use can you make of me except send me off to scout the neighbourhood? After all, I’m the only expendable person here.”
    “A hundred and eighty people on a planet the size of Earth give or take a few per cent, and you think even one of them can be called expendable? Dennis, you’re not developing a martyr complex, are you?”
    “If I were, you’d have found it out from your tests,” Dennis muttered. “Quit fencing with me, Parvati. I
know
that in spite of everything—two hands, strong back, adequate intelligence, technical skills—I’m a liability. Everybody else wanted to be here, everybody else was prepared consciously and subconsciously for the idea of remaining here till their dying day. I’m the only one who’s trapped. And it follows from that that I’m the likeliest to go crazy. Something which even you couldn’t predict with your fantastic empathy might break me apart one day—a last-straw frustration, more than likely—and you might well lose someone you genuinely can’t afford to do without. Isn’t that true? Tell me honestly.”
    But before she had a chance to frame her answer, he rose and headed for the door. “I’ll wander round and see who wants some data harvested. Maybe I can come back this afternoon with enough requests to save Abdul from being as obstructionist as you.”
    The door closed behind him. It was of unseasoned timber. It had been accurately cut with power-tools when it was installed, but it was warping a little now, and when it met its jamb a bulge in the wood rubbed, and caused a squeak. Parvati winced.
    Of course, he was perfectly right. Regardless of how well their plan to establish themselves was progressing, they had in the final analysis come naked to Asgard. They had to clothe