hem get used to you," said Webber softly.

Paula obviously had been here before. She had begun to make noises too,
a modified hooting more like a pigeon's call. Kieran just stood still.
The people moved in around them, sniffing, touching. There was no
conversation, no laughing or giggling even among the little girls. A
particularly beautiful young woman stood just behind the chief, watching
the strangers with big yellow cat-eyes. Kieran took her to be the man's
daughter. He smiled at her. She continued to stare, deadpan and
blank-eyed, with no answering flicker of a smile. It was as though she
had never seen one before. Kieran shivered. All this silence and
unresponsiveness became eerie.

"I'm happy to tell you," he murmured to Paula, "that I don't think much
of your little pets?"

She could not allow herself to be sharply angry. She only said, in a
whisper, "They are not pets, they are not animals. They--"

She broke off. Something had come over the naked people. Every head had
lifted, every eye had turned away from the strangers. They were
listening. Even the littlest ones were still.

Kieran could not hear anything except the wind in the trees.

"What--?" he started to ask.

Webber made an imperative gesture for silence. The tableau held for a
brief second longer. Then the brown-haired man who seemed to be the
leader made a short harsh noise. The people turned and vanished into the
trees.

"The Sakae," Webber said. "Get out of sight." He ran toward the flitter.
Paula grabbed Kieran's sleeve and pushed him toward the trees.

"What's going on?" he demanded as he ran.

"Their ears are better than ours. There's a patrol ship coming, I
think."

* * * * *

The shadows took them in, orange-and-gold-splashed shadows under strange
trees. Kieran looked back. Webber had been inside the flitter. Now he
tumbled out of the hatch and ran toward them. Behind him the hatch
closed and the flitter stirred and then took off all by itself, humming.

"They'll follow it for a while," Webber panted. "It may give us a chance
to get away." He and Paula started after the running people.

Kieran balked. "I don't know why I'm running away from anybody."

Webber pulled out a snub-nosed instrument that looked enough like a gun
to be very convincing. He pointed it at Kieran's middle.

"Reason one," he said. "If the Sakae catch Paula and me here we're in
very big trouble. Reason two--this is a closed