decision is reached."

* * * * *

Dal waited in an anteroom, feeding Fuzzy and trying to put out of his
mind for a moment the heated argument still raging in the council
chamber. Fuzzy was quivering with fright; unable to speak, the tiny
creature nevertheless clearly experienced emotions, even though Dal
himself did not know how he received impressions, nor why.

But Dal knew that there was a connection between the tiny pink
creature's emotions and the peculiar talent that Black Doctor Arnquist
had spoken of the night before. It was not a telepathic power that Dal
and his people possessed. Just _what_ it was, was difficult to define,
yet Dal knew that every Garvian depended upon it to some extent in
dealing with people around him. He knew that when Fuzzy was sitting on
his arm he could sense the emotions of those around him--the anger, the
fear, the happiness, the suspicion--and he knew that under certain
circumstances, in a way he did not clearly understand, he could wilfully
change the feelings of others toward himself. Not a great deal, perhaps,
nor in any specific way, but just enough to make them look upon him and
his wishes more favorably than they otherwise might.

Throughout his years on Hospital Earth he had vigilantly avoided using
this strange talent. Already he was different enough from Earthmen in
appearance, in ways of thinking, in likes and dislikes. But these
differences were not advantages, and he had realized that if his
classmates had ever dreamed of the advantage that he had, minor as it
was, his hopes of becoming a physician would have been destroyed
completely.