nvoluntarily he placed his hand upon her arm. She flinched, her
muscles tensing under his finger tips. It was though his fingers carried
a galvanic current that backlashed up his arm even as it stiffened hers.

"What's the matter, Copper?" he asked softly.

"Nothing, Doctor. I'm just upset."

"Why?"

There it was again, the calm friendly curiosity that was worse than a
bath in ice water. Her heart sank. She shivered. She would never find
her desire here. He was cold--cold--cold! He wouldn't see. He didn't
care. All right--so that was how it had to be. But first she would tell
him. Then he could do with her as he wished. "I hoped--for the past year
that you would see me. That you would think of me not as a Lani, but as
a beloved." The words came faster now, tumbling over one another. "That
you would desire me and take me to those worlds we cannot know unless
you humans show us. I have hoped so much, but I suppose it's wrong--for
you--you are so very human, and I--well, I'm not!" The last three words
held all the sadness and the longing of mankind aspiring to be God.

"My dear--my poor child," Kennon murmured.

She looked at him, but her eyes could not focus on his face, for his
hands were on her shoulders and the nearness of him drove the breath
from her body. From a distance she heard a hard tight voice that was her
own. "Oh, sir--oh please, sir!"

The hands withdrew, leaving emptiness--but her heartbeat slowed and the
pink haze cleared and she could see his face.

And with a surge of terror and triumph she realized what she saw! That
hard bright look that encompassed and possessed her! The curved lips
drawn over white, white teeth! The flared nostrils! The hungry demand
upon his face that answered the demand in her heart! And she knew--at
last--with a knowledge that turned her limbs to water, that she had
found favor in his eyes!

CHAPTER XI

Mixed emotion! Ha! The author of that cliche didn't even know its
meaning! Kennon strode furiously down the dusty road toward Station One
trying to sublimate his inner conflict into action. It was useless, of
course, for once he stopped moving the grim tug-of-war between training
and desire would begin again, and no matter how it ended the result
would be unsatisfactory. As long as he had been able to delude himself
that he was fond of Copper the way a man is fond of some lesser species,
it had been all right. But he knew now that he was fond of her as a man
is of