 What changes Koltan's mind about Earthmen, and ultimately condemns the Masur House to ruin?
"It is an outrage," said Koltan of the House of Masur, "that the Earthmen land among the Thorabians!" Zotul, youngest of the Masur brothers, stirred uneasily. Personally, he was in favor of the coming of the Earthmen to the world of Zur. Earthmen may come and Earthmen may go, but clay goes on forever ... and with it, the fame and fortune of the House of Masur." "It is a damned imposition," agreed Morvan, ignoring his father's philosophical attitude. By this, he seemed to imply that the Thorabians would rob the Earthmen, which the Lorians would not. "Doubtless," said Zotul unexpectedly, for the youngest at a conference was expected to keep his mouth shut and applaud the decisions of his elders, "the Earthmen used all the metal on their planet in building that ship. It was a common enough thing among the brothers Masur, as among everybody, to be frustrated in their desires. Still smarting, Zotul went back to his designing quarters and thought about the Earthmen. The Earthmen were going to do great things for the whole world of Zur. Accurate reporting, much less a newspaper, was unknown on Zur. Finally, the Earthmen took off in their great, shining ship. The anti-Earthmen Faction—in any culture complex, there is always an "anti" faction to protest any movement of endeavor—crowed happily that the Earthmen were gone for good, and a good thing, too. In spite of the fact that a terrestrial ship had landed at every Zurian city of major and minor importance, and all in a single day, it took some time for the news to spread. The kilns of the Pottery of Masur fired day and night to keep up with the demand for the new porcelain stoves. This, for some unknown reason and much to the disgust of the Lorians, was set up in Thorabia. The remainder of the brothers Masur, on the other hand, preferred to remain in ignorance. Within five years of the first landing of the Earthmen, every major city on the globe had a printing press, a daily newspaper, and enjoyed the instantaneous transmission of news via telegraph. "As I have always said from the beginning," chortled Director Koltan, "this coming of the Earthmen had been a great thing for us, and especially for the House of Masur." The result of the new flood was that in the following year, the sale of Masur ceramic table service dropped to less than a tenth.
 He sees potential for the House of Masur to profit off of the Earthmen's inventions
 He sees potential for the House of Masur to profit off of the Earthmen's inventions  He predicts that the Earthmen will not be able to withstand Zurian conditions for long, and that they will soon depart  He believes he can feign sincerity in order to steal their metal and other goods  He thinks that Earthmen are intellectually inferior and that he can manipulate them to do his bidding