light to a peculiarly
exotic, minor-keyed music played on reed and percussion instruments.
Laughing gaily, they enticed members of Lord's crew to join them.

The milky drink proved mildly intoxicating--yet different from the
stimulants used in the Federation. Lord drank a long draught from a mug
brought him by one of the women. The effect was immediate. He felt no
dulling of his reason, however; no loss of muscular control, but instead
a stealthy relaxation of mental strain joined with a satisfying sense of
physical well-being. A subtle shifting in prospective, in accepted values.

The savage feast, which grew steadily more boisterous, Lord would have
called an orgy under other circumstances. The word did occur to him, but it
seemed fantastically inapplicable. Normally the behavior of his men would
have demanded the severest kind of disciplinary action. But here the old
code of rules simply didn't apply and he didn't interfere with their
enjoyment.

The afternoon sun blazed in the western sky; heat in shimmering waves
hung over the clearing. Lord went into the ship and stripped off his
uniform; somehow the glittering insignia, the ornamental braid, the stiff
collar--designed to be impressive symbols of authority--seemed garish and
out of place. Lord put on the shorts which he wore when he exercised in
the capsule gym aboard ship.

Outside again, he found that most of the men had done the same thing. The
sun felt warm on his skin; the air was comfortably balmy, entirely free of
the swarms of flies and other insects which made other newly contacted
frontier worlds so rugged.

As he stood in the shelter of the landing ladder and sipped a second mug
of the white liquor, Lord became slowly aware of something else. Divested
of their distinguishing uniforms, he and his crew seemed puny and ill-fed
beside the natives. If physique were any index to the sophistication of a
culture--but that was a ridiculous generalization!

He saw Ann Howard coming toward him through the crowd--stern-faced,
hard-jawed, stiffly dignified in her uniform. The other women among the
crew had put on their lightest dress, but not Ann. Lord was in no frame of
mind, just then, to endure an interview with her. He knew precisely what
she would say; Ann was a kind of walking encyclopedia of the conventions.

Lord slid out of sight in the shadow of the ship, but Ann had seen him. He
turned blindly into the forest, running along the path toward the villa