be called stealing--some of the innumerable wild
cattle of Orede.

The blueskins on Orede could not trust Calhoun, so they pretended not
to hear. Or maybe that didn't hear. They'd been abandoned and betrayed
by all of humanity off their world. They'd been threatened and
oppressed by guardships in orbit about them, ready to shoot down any
spacecraft they might send aloft....

So Calhoun brooded, while Murgatroyd presently yawned and climbed to
his cubbyhole and curled up to sleep with his furry tail carefully
adjusted over his nose.

A long time later Calhoun heard small sounds which were not normal on
a Med Ship in overdrive. They were not part of the random noises
carefully generated to keep the silence of the ship endurable. Calhoun
raised his head. He listened sharply. No sound could come from
outside.

He knocked on the door of the sleeping cabin. The noises stopped
instantly.

"Come out," he commanded through the door.

"I'm--I'm all right," said Maril's voice. But it was not quite steady.
She paused. "Did I make a noise? I was having a bad dream."

"I wish," said Calhoun, "that you'd tell me the truth just
occasionally! Come out, please!"

There were stirrings. After a little it opened and Maril appeared. She
looked as if she'd been crying. She said, quickly, "I probably look
queer, but it's because I was asleep."

"To the contrary," said Calhoun, fuming. "You've been lying awake
crying. I don't know why. I've been out here wishing I could, because
I'm frustrated. But since you aren't asleep maybe you can help me with
my job. I've figured some things out. For some others I need facts.
Will you give them to me?"

She swallowed. "I'll try."

"Coffee?" he asked.

Murgatroyd popped his head out of his miniature sleeping cabin.

"_Chee?_" he asked interestedly.

"Go back to sleep!" snapped Calhoun.

He began to pace back and forth.

"I need to know something about the pigment patches," he said jerkily.
"Maybe it sounds crazy to think of such things now--first things
first, you know. But this is a first thing! So long as Darians don't
look like the people of other worlds, they'll be believed to be
different. If they look repulsive, they'll be believed to be evil.

"Tell me about those patches. They're different sizes and different
shapes and they appear in different places. You've none on your face
or hands, anyhow."

"I haven't any at all," said the girl reservedly.

"I thought--"

"Not eve