f sunlight on tan
skin. He was still heading downward in the direction of the stream. It
was their last sight of him. They watched for a while longer, but he did
not reappear under the green canopy of forest.

"Just a guess," Cal said. He spoke matter-of-factly in the hope the
casualness would wash the fear and awe from Louie's eyes. "That's
probably one of the dissident men who broke away from the main colony
and set up housekeeping in this adjacent valley. Apparently the same
things have happened to him as happened to the main colony, whatever it
was.

"I'd guess it came as pretty much of a shock and he's just now worked up
courage to scout the main valley. From that I'd say whatever happened
wasn't very long ago, not more than a week. Just a guess."

None of the crew answered him. It was obviously not the case of a voyeur
spying on others--not with the kind of excitement the running man had
shown. Running away--that is.

"Let's drop down into the atmosphere," Cal suggested. "I'd assume it is
breathable from the fact we've seen earth animals and a human being.
Still we'd better make tests."

"Yeah," Louie said unexpectedly. "If the man isn't making any footprints
maybe he isn't breathing, either." He tried to make it a joke, to fight
his fear with self-derision. He didn't succeed. Nobody laughed. He
swallowed hard and studied the charts again for no apparent reason.

Cal glanced quickly from Tom to Frank. A look at Norton's face showed
him Frank wasn't very far behind Louie in the progress of shock.
Perhaps, as with himself, it was Lynwood's sense of responsibility for
his crew that was helping the pilot to maintain a better control. But
there was a white line around Lynwood's mouth, running up the line of
his jaw. Caused by clenching his teeth too tightly? Clenched, to keep
them from chattering?

However experienced a man became, however dependable the reactions, one
never knew how to predict reaction in the face of the completely
unknown. Yet Cal knew that even if he asked any of the men if they
feared to take him down it would be an insult never forgotten. It was
their job to take an E where he wanted to go. It wouldn't be the first
time they had gambled their lives on the judgment of an E.

"Oh-oh," Tom exclaimed. "We have company." He pointed to an indicator on
the panel.

They swept the space around them with the scanner, and hovering off to
one side they picked up another ship. They watched it for a