ge.

In a fern-banked glen beside the miniature waterfall he had met Niaga.

* * * * *

No woman he had ever known seemed so breathtakingly beautiful. Her skin had
been caressed by a lifetime's freedom in the sun; her long, dark hair had
the sheen of polished ebony; and in the firm, healthy curves of her body
he saw the sensuous grace of a Venus or an Aphrodite.

[Illustration: In a fern-banked glen beside a miniature waterfall, Martin
Lord first saw Niaga.]

She stood up slowly and faced him, smiling; a bright shaft of sunlight fell
on the liquid bow of her lips. "I am Niaga," she said. "You must be one of
the men who came on the ship."

"Martin Lord," he answered huskily. "I'm the trade agent in command."

"I am honored." Impulsively she took the garland of flowers which she had
been making and put it around his neck. When she came close, the subtle
perfume of her hair was unmistakable--like the smell of pine needles on a
mountain trail; new grass during a spring rain; or the crisp, winter air
after a fall of snow. Perfume sharply symbolic of freedom, heady and
intoxicating, numbing his mind with the ghosts of half-remembered dreams.

"I was coming to your ship with the others," she said, "but I stopped here
to swim, as I often do. I'm afraid I stayed too long, day-dreaming on the
bank; time means so little to us." Shyly she put her hand in his. "But,
perhaps, no harm is done, since you are still alone. If you have taken no
one else, will I do?"

"I--I don't understand."

"You are strangers; we want you to feel welcome."

"Niaga, people don't--that is--" He floundered badly. Intellectually he
knew he could not apply the code of his culture to hers; emotionally it
was a difficult concept to accept. If his standards were invalid, his
definitions might be, too. Perhaps this society was no more primitive
than--No! A mature people would always develop more or less the same
mechanical techniques, and these people had nothing remotely like a
machine.

"You sent us a gift," she said. "It is only proper for us to return the
kindness."

"You have made a rather miraculous use of the language machine in a
remarkably short period of time."

"We applied it to everyone in the village. We knew it would help your
people feel at ease, if we could talk together in a common tongue."

"You go to great pains to welcome a shipload of strangers."

"Naturally. Consideration for others is the f