"No thanks."

"You are angry."

"Wouldn't you be, if our situations were reversed?"

"You are anthromorphizing."

"Well?"

"Oh, I suppose I would."

"You could give us a break, you know—at least let us make our ownmistakes."

"You've hardly done that yourself, though, with all the creaturesmy fellows have succeeded."

Martin reddened.

"Okay. You just scored one. But I don't have to like it."

"You are a good player. I know that... ."

"Tlingel, if I were capable of playing at my best again, I think Icould beat you."

The unicorn snorted two tiny wisps of smoke.

"Not _that_ good," Tlingel said.

"I guess you'll never know."

"Do I detect a proposal?"

"Possibly. What's another game worth to you?"

Tlingel made a chuckling noise.

"Let me guess: You are going to say that if you beat me you wantmy promise not to lay my will upon the weakest link in mankind'sexistence and shatter it."

"Of course."

"And what do I get for winning?"

"The pleasure of the game. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"The terms sound a little lopsided."

"Not if you are going to win anyway. You keep insisting that youwill."

"All right. Set up the board."

"There is something else that you have to know about me first."

"Yes?"

"I don't play well under pressure, and this game is going to be aterrific strain. You want my best game, don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid I've no way of adjusting your own reactionsto the play."

"I believe I could do that myself if I had more than the usualamount of time between moves."

"Agreed."

"I mean a lot of time."

"Just what do you have in mind?"

"I'll need time to get my mind off it, to relax, to come back tothe positions as if they were only problems... ."

"You mean to go away from here between moves?"