ty! If we run into them, there is no knowing what they'll
do. That ship was never built on this planet."

Noldi didn't smile or laugh. He just looked at me. Serious, puzzled, and
a little scared.

"You think it's a space ship, eh, Keele?"

I nodded.

"What else could it be?"

"What's it doin' out here in no man's land?" Polter asked. "You'd think
strangers like that would land near a city, try to make some kind of
official contact."

"If you were landing on a strange world, would you land near a city?" I
asked.

Polter laughed.

"I guess you hit it. They don't know whether they'd be welcome or not.
Scared, eh?"

"Just careful, I'd say. We don't know anything about them. But ships
like that have been reported off and on for hundreds of years. Don't be
surprised if you never see a trace of it again, and if no one else but
me ever believes you when you mention it. I don't think we'll have to
worry about the flying saucer."

"What the hell do they want, then?" Noldi didn't know what I meant,
exactly.

"Nobody knows, Frans. Nobody ever saw them as close as you just did
today."

* * *

Watching Jake Barto next morning, I saw that the little image in his
hand pointed right across the center of that cloud-topping mountain.
That meant we had to go around it, for we were not equipped for such
climbing, nor would there have been any sense in it. Jake figured on
circling to the left, and I was glad, for I for one wanted no parts of
that disk ship that Polter and Noldi had seen in the other direction.
Jake ignored me. He was unpredictable!

It was a long mountain, and we traveled along one side, toward the
north, figuring on crossing to the east wherever a pass appeared. After
a time a faint trail showed, and we followed it. It drew us higher,
until we were moving perilously along a ledge of rock, with precipitous
walls above and a sharp drop below. Higher and higher, above the
tree-line now, the path went on, and there were signs of travel along it
that worried me.

Polter was in the lead, and as we rounded a shoulder of rock, gave a cry
of wonder. We hurried after, to see the trail breaking over a low crest
of the mountain, and leading now downward. This shoulder of rock
outthrust here marked the place where the trail we were following
crossed the ridge of the mountain crest at its lowest point. But it also
marked something else, which was what had caused Polter's cry.

A line of dust acr