"
"I'd have done more to that fellow then Mark did, if I'd been there
when it happened." The Marine officer turned to Meillard. "Look,
this is your show, Paul; how you run it is your job. But in your
place, I'd take that pair back to the village and have them point
out who beat them up, and teach the whole gang of them a lesson.
If you're going to colonize this planet, you're going to have to
establish Federation law, and Federation law says you mustn't gang
up on people and beat and rob them. We don't have to speak Svantese
to make them understand what we'll put up with and what we won't."
"Later, Luis. After we've gotten a treaty with somebody." Meillard
broke off. "Watch this!"
The woman was making sign-talk. She pointed to the village on the
mound. Then, with her hands, she shaped a bucket like the ones that
had been given to them, and made a snatching gesture away from
herself. She indicated the neckcloths, and the sheath knife and the
other things, and snatched them away too. She made beating motions,
and touched her bruises and the man's.
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