They gaped at him.
"Glork is right," Dermott swallowed.
Tim Casey closed his mouth with an effort. "Do you mind the color of his face?" he blurted.
"How could I help it?"
Dameri Tass rubbed a blue-nailed pink hand down his purplish countenance and yawned again. "Gorra manigan horp soratium," he said.
Patrolman Dermott and Patrolman Casey shot stares at each other. "'Tis double talk he's after givin' us," Casey said.
Dameri Tass frowned. "Harama?" he asked.
Larry Dermott pushed his cap to the back of his head. "That doesn't sound like any language I've even heard about."
Dameri Tass grimaced, turned and reentered his spacecraft to emerge in half a minute with his hands full of contraption. He held a box-like arrangement under his left arm; in his right hand were two metal caps connected to the box by wires.
While the patrolmen watched him, he set the box on the ground, twirled two dials and put one of the caps on his head. He offered the other to Larry Dermott; his desire was obvious.