placed the tape-reading symbolism. A savage voice
seemed to rumble:

"Toss the tender small-bite to me"--malevolent crimson eyes fixed on
Telzey from somewhere not far away--"and let's be done here!"

Startled, stammering protest from Tick-Tock, accompanied by gusts of
laughter from the circle. Great sense of humor these characters had,
Telzey thought bitterly. That crimson-eyed thing wasn't joking at all!

More laughter as the circle caught her thought. Then a kind of
majority opinion found sudden expression:

"Small-bite _is_ learning! No harm to wait--We'll find out
quickly--Let's...."

The tape ended; the voices faded; the colors went blank. In whatever
jumbled-up form she'd been getting the impressions at that
point--Telzey couldn't have begun to describe it--the whole thing
suddenly stopped.

* * * * *

She found herself sitting in the grass, shaky, scared, eyes open.
Tick-Tock stood beside the terrace, looking at her. An air of hazy
unreality still hung about the garden.

She might have flipped! She didn't think so; but it certainly seemed
possible! Otherwise ... Telzey made an attempt to sort over what had
happened.

Something _had_ been in the garden! Something had been inside her
mind. Something that was at home on Jontarou.

There'd been a feeling of perhaps fifty or sixty of these ... well,
beings. Alarming beings! Reckless, wild, hard ... and that red-eyed
nightmare! Telzey shuddered.

They'd contacted Tick-Tock first, during the night. TT understood them
better than she could. Why? Telzey found no immediate answer.

Then Tick-Tock had tricked her into letting her mind be invaded by
these beings. There must have been a very definite reason for that.

She looked over at Tick-Tock. TT looked back. Nothing stirred in
Telzey's thoughts. Between _them_ there was still no direct
communication.

Then how had the beings been able to get through to her?

Telzey wrinkled her nose. Assuming this was real, it seemed clear that
the game of symbols she'd made up between herself and TT had provided
the opening. Her whole experience just now had been in the form of
symbols, translating whatever occurred into something she could
consciously grasp.

"Kitten-talk" was how the beings referred to the use of symbols; they
seemed contemptuous of it. Never mind, Telzey told herself; they'd
agreed she was learning.

The air over the grass appeared to flicker. Again she had the