 About to be executed out of hand, the would-be thieves are reprieved when a high Wankh leader, who had been aboard the stolen ship, decides to investigate further.Reith is able to tell it what he has surmised.The Wankhmen have been deliberately misleading the Wankh; the Dirdir have not been a threat to them for centuries, but have been made to appear so in order to safeguard the Wankhmen's comfortable status quo.