aire could tell, a single significant
difference. It was not really extraordinary--similar conditions will
generally breed similar races--but there was something about these men
and women which was hard and powerful, and in a way almost grand.

They were magnificently built, rounded and bronzed. Their women
especially were remarkably beautiful. They were wearing woven clothes
of various colors, in simple savage fashions; but there was nothing at
all savage about them. They did not shout or seem nervous or move
around very much, and nowhere among them was there any sign of a
weapon. Furthermore, they did not seem to be particularly curious. The
ring about the ship did not increase. Although several new people
wandered in from time to time, others were leaving, unconcerned. The
only ones among them who seemed at all excited were the children.

Beauclaire stood by the view-screen, watching. Eventually Coop joined
him, looking without interest until he saw the women. There was one
particular girl with shaded brown eyes and a body of gentle hills.
Coop grinned widely and turned up the magnification until the screen
showed nothing but the girl. He was gazing with appreciation and
making side comments to Beauclaire when Wyatt came in.

"Looka _that_, Billy," Coop roared with delight, pointing. "Man, we
have come home!"

* * * * *

Wyatt smiled very tightly, changed the magnification quickly to cover
the whole throng around them.

"No trouble?"

"Nope," Coop said. "Air's good, too. Thin, but practically pure
oxygen. Who's first to go out?"

"Me," Wyatt said, for obvious reasons. He would not be missed.

No one argued with him. Coop was smiling as Wyatt armed himself. Then
he warned Wyatt to leave that cute little brown-eyed doll alone.

Wyatt went out.

The air was clear and cool. There was a faint breeze stirring the
leaves around him, and Wyatt listened momentarily to the far
bell-calls of birds. This would be the last time he would ever go out
like this, to walk upon an unknown world. He waited for some time by
the airlock before he went forward.

The ring of people did not move as he approached, his hand upraised in
what the Mapping Command had come to rely on as the universal gesture
of peace. He paused before a tall, monolithic old man in a single
sheath of green cloth.

"Hello," he said aloud, and bowed his head slowly.

From the ship, through the wide-angle sights of a gu