Don put it in a pocket. “You never did get around to explaining why I should turn it over to you.”
“But—” Phipps turned quite red. “This is preposterous! Had we known it was here, we would never have bothered to send for you—we would have had it without your leave.”
“Oh, no!” ‘
Phipps swung his eyes to Isobel. “What’s that, young lady? Why not?”
“Because I wouldn’t have given it to you—not ever. Don told me that someone was trying to get it away from him. I didn’t know that you were the one.”
Phipps, already red-faced, got almost apoplectic. “I’ve had all this childish kidding around with serious matters that I can stand.” He took two long strides to Don and grasped him by the arm. “Cut out the nonsense and give us that message!”
Don shook him off and backed away half a step, all in one smooth motion—and Phipps looked down to see the point of a blade almost touching his waistband. Don held the knife with the relaxed thumb-and-two-finger grip of those who understand steel.
Phipps seemed to have trouble believing what he saw. Don said to him softly, “Get away from me.”
Phipps backed away. “Sir Isaac!”
“Yes,” agreed Don. “Sir Isaac—do I have to put up with this in your house?”
The dragon’s tentacles struck the keys, but only confused squawking came out. He stopped and started again and said very slowly, “Donald—this is your house. You are always safe in it. Please—by the service you did me—put away your weapon.”
Don glanced at Phipps, straightened up and caused his knife to disappear. Phipps relaxed and turned to the dragon. “Well, Sir Isaac? What are you going to do about it?”
Sir Isaac did not bother with the voder. “Remove thyself!”
“Eh?”
“You have brought dissension into this house. Were you not both in my house and of my family? Yet you menaced him. Please go—before you cause more sorrow.”
Phipps started to speak, thought better of it—left. Don said, “Sir Isaac, I am terribly sorry. I—”
“Let the waters close over it. Let the mud bury it. Donald, my dear boy, how can I assure you that what we ask of you is what your honored parents would have you do, were they here to instruct you?”
Don considered this. “I think that’s just the trouble, Sir Isaac—I’m not your ‘dear boy.’ I’m not anybody’s ‘dear boy.’ My parents aren’t here and I’m not sure that I would let them instruct me if they were. I’m a grown man now—I’m not as old as you are, not by several centuries. I’m not very old even by human standards—Mr. Phipps still classes me as a boy and that was what was wrong. But I’m not a boy and I’ve got to know what’s going on and make up my own mind. So far, I’ve heard a lot of sales talk and I’ve been subjected to a lot of verbal pushing around. That won’t do; I’ve got to know the real facts.”
Before Sir Isaac could reply they were interrupted by another sound—Isobel was applauding. Don said to her. “How about you, Isobel? What do you know about all this?”
“Me? Nothing. I couldn’t be more in the dark if I were stuffed in a sack. I was just cheering your sentiments.”
“My daughter,” Mr. Costello put in crisply, “knows nothing at all of these things. But I do—and it appears that you are entitled to answers.”
“I could certainly use some!”
“By your leave, Sir Isaac?” The dragon ponderously inclined his head; Costello went on, “Fire away. I’ll try to give you straight answers.”
“Okay—what’s the message in the ring?”
“Well, I can’t answer that exactly or we wouldn’t need the message ourselves. I know that it’s a discussion of certain aspects of physics—gravitation and inertia and spin and things like that. Field theory. It’s certainly very long and very complicated and I probably wouldn’t understand it if I knew exactly what was in it. I’m simply a somewhat rusty communications engineer, not a topflight theoretical physicist.”
Don looked puzzled. “I don’t get it. Somebody tucks a physics book into a ring—and then we play cops-and-robbers all around the system. It sounds silly. Furthermore, it sounds impossible.” He took the ring out and looked at it; the light shone through it clearly. It was just a notions counter trinket—how could a major work on physics be hidden in it?