Gersen contacts Treesong's one-time music teacher, and pays for his orchestra's appearance at the reunion – with Gersen as a member, though an afternoon's lesson leaves him a thoroughly inept musician. His guess is correct. Treesong arrives, accompanied by a band of menacing underlings, and perpetrates imaginative (though non-lethal) humiliations on those who had tormented him. Treesong's admittedly good musical ear is offended by Gersen's poor playing, so he has him thrown out. Out of sight, Gersen dispatches the men assigned to take him away and uses their weapons. This is enough to disrupt Treesong's revenge, but Gersen can do no more than inflict another wound before he has to flee. In a second interview with the Hardoahs he learns that the Cleadhoes moved off-planet, and their destination. Otho Cleadhoe was township marmelizer – who transformed the flesh of corpses into a stony substance, after which the resulting "marmel" (statue) was placed in the cemetery.