ting and whuffling. There was a silence. Webber made the sound
again.

On the third try the people came out of the woods.

In all there were perhaps twenty-five of them. They came slowly and
furtively, moving a step or two at a time, then halting and peering,
prepared to run. The able-bodied men came first, with one in the lead, a
fine-looking chap in early middle age who was apparently the chief. The
women, the old men, and the children followed, trickling gradually out
of the shadow of the trees but remaining where they could disappear in a
flash if alarmed. They were all perfectly naked, tall and slender and
large-eyed, their muscles strung for speed and agility rather than
massive strength. Their bodies gleamed a light bronze color in the sun,
and Kieran noticed that the men were beardless and smooth-skinned. Both
men and women had long hair, ranging in color from black to tawny, and
very clean and glistening. They were a beautiful people, as deer are a
beautiful people, graceful, innocent, and wild. The men came to the
dried fruits which had been scattered for them. They picked them up and
sniffed them, bit them, then began to eat, repeating the
grunt-and-whuffle call. The women and children and old men decided
everything was safe and joined them. Webber tossed out more fruit, and
then got out himself, carrying the plastic box.

* * * * *

"What does he do next?" whispered Kieran to Paula. "Scratch their ears?
I used to tame squirrels this way when I was a kid."

"Shut up," she warned him. Webber beckoned and she nudged him to move
out of the flitter. "Slow and careful."

Kieran slid out of the flitter. Big glistening eyes swung to watch him.
The eating stopped. Some of the little ones scuttled for the trees.
Kieran froze. Webber hooted and whuffled some more and the tension
relaxed. Kieran approached the group with Paula. There was suddenly no
truth in what he was doing. He was an actor in a bad scene, mingling
with impossible characters in an improbable setting. Webber making
ridiculous noises and tossing his dried fruit around like a caricature
of somebody sowing, Paula with her brisk professionalism all dissolved
in misty-eyed fondness, himself an alien in this time and place, and
these perfectly normal-appearing people behaving like orang-utans with
their fur shaved off. He started to laugh and then thought better of it.
Once started, he might not be able to stop.

"Let t