was
inching out toward the yellow and brown neck.

"Look, Harry, these things aren't done in a day. We--"

"A day!" Loren hissed. "A _day_! All this time and you say a _day_!"

"No, I'm sorry," Kirk said quickly. He wished he could shift out of the
cramped half-lying position he was in. "I didn't mean a day, Harry. I
meant it wasn't easy. We didn't know where you were--" He was talking
quickly, whining almost, and he'd never whined before.

Loren's fingers were touching the waving neck.

"We'd better hurry," Kirk said desperately. "Annette's waiting. And
Dickie, of course."

Loren blinked.

"You wouldn't want to keep them waiting any longer, not after all this
time, Harry."

Loren stroked his fingers slowly down the long neck of the animal.

"I think," Kirk said, almost hoarsely, "now that I really remember it,
Annette _was_ still wearing her hair braided. I remember that now,
Harry. Positively."

Loren froze the motion of his hand and stared at Kirk. His lips
trembled, and then suddenly he put his hands in front of his face. He
bent forward, and Kirk felt his nerves jumping, watching the man start
to cry.

The animal turned its stare away from Kirk for the first time. It looked
at Loren and then slowly raised a claw, touching Loren's shoulder
carefully. It made a sound then, a peculiar hissing sound, soft, barely
audible. There was no danger in it, or menace, only a pitiful sound.

Loren raised his head a little and brought his hands away from his face.
Tears had cut through dust and grime and his face was streaked.

"Shall we go, Harry?" Kirk said.

Loren wiped at his eyes, stupidly, without knowing what he was doing.
Then he brought his hands down and wiped them across his chest.

"All right," he said. "Let's go." He picked up Kirk's pistol from where
he had dropped it on the ground and held it out.

Kirk looked at the gun and at the animal. The claw had been drawn away
from Loren's shoulder and again it was poised, ready. "You keep it,
Harry," he said.

"Oh, yes. Of course," Loren said. There was a moment of silence as Loren
stuck the pistol absently into the waist of his ragged cloth covering,
beside the knife. The three of them waited then, Kirk, Loren, and the
animal.

"Eddie?" Loren said finally. "Are you ready?"

* * * * *

Kirk felt himself smiling in the direction of the animal. He remembered
when he was a small boy, going by a house where there had be