Ballots and Bandits
Second Secretary Relief of the Terran Em-
bassy emerged from his hotel into a bunting-
draped street crowded with locals: bustling,
furry folk with upraised, bushy tails, like over-
sized chipmunks, ranging in height from a
foot to a yard. A party of placard-carrying
marchers, emerging from a side street, jostled
their way through the press, briskly ripping
down political posters attached to shop walls
and replacing them with posters of their own.
Their move was immediately countered by a
group of leaflet distributors who set about
applying mustaches, beards, and crossed eyes
to the new placards. The passers-by joined in
cheerfully, some blacking out teeth and add-
ing warts to the tips of button noses, others
grabbing the brushes from the defacers and
9
10 Keith Laumer
applying them to their former owners' faces.
Fists flew; the clamor rose.
Relief felt a tug at his knee; a small Obero-
nian dressed in blue breeches and a spotted
white apron looked up at him with wide, wor-
ried eyes.
"Prithee, fair sir," the small creature piped
in a shrill voice, "come quick, ere all is lost!"
"What's the matter?" Relief inquired, not-
ing the flour smudge on the Oberonian's cheek
and the dab of pink icing on the tip of his
nose. "Are the cookies burning?"
"E'en worse than that, milordч'tis the
Tsuggs! The great brutes would dismantle the
shop entire! But follow and observe!" The
Oberonian whirled and darted away.
Retief followed along the steeply sloping
cobbled alley between close-pressing houses,
his head level with the second-story bal-
conies. Through open windows he caught
glimpses of dollhouselike interiors, complete
with toy tables and chairs and postage-stamp-
