e men on the ship would be waiting and looking at their watches. How
long, they would be asking, does it take those colonists, that E down
there, to get a signal fire going?

About five minutes passed, and another flare lighted the heavens.

"Get off the dime down there!" it seemed to say. "Acknowledge us!"

Cal took the chance that they might have an infrared viewscope directly
on him, and he waved his arms above his head. But apparently they had
not spotted him, for there was no answering flare.

At intervals of five minutes at first, then later cut to fifteen
minutes, throughout the long night the flares continued to light the
sky.

"Talk to us," the flares begged. "Surely you were expecting us. Surely
you would not all be sleeping so soundly that our light could not rouse
you."

Several times the three men stood up and waved their arms, but it
brought no answer from the ship. In the darkness perhaps the equipment
wasn't good enough. Perhaps in the night breeze bushes and trees also
swayed with movement.

Once there was a rustle in the brush, and in the starlight they
recognized the figure of Louie approaching them.

"This has got to stop," he said worriedly as he came up to them. "That
light is an unnatural thing. It will anger Them. It is not meant for the
peace of Eden to be disturbed by any artificial thing. And if They
should turn Their wrath upon us--woe, woe!"

His face was stricken in the light of a new flare, and as suddenly as he
had come to object, he left, plunged back under the trees to seek his
people, be beside them, comforting them when disaster struck down.

After a time the three men gave up trying to wave their acknowledgment
of the flares in darkness. They watched for an hour or so, and then
tried to sleep. The periodic flares continued to come throughout the
long night, as if now no longer pleading for acknowledgment, but rather
reassuring men in such deep distress that they could not answer.
Reassuring them that help was at hand and morning would come.

They tried to sleep, and although fitfully disturbed by the continuing
flares, they did sleep. But at the first hint of dawn, Cal awoke and
aroused his two companions, and by the time there was enough light for
the ship to see clear detail upon the ground, the three men were ready
for a better attempt at answering the ship's signal.

They went up to the village site, where the colonists were sleeping in
the way a herd is bedded down