indicated the neckcloths, and the sheath knife and the
other things, and snatched them away too. She made beating motions,
and touched her bruises and the man's. All the time, she was talking
excitedly, in a high, shrill voice. The man made the same
_ghroogh-ghroogh_ noises that he had that afternoon.

"No; we can't take any punitive action. Not now," Meillard said.
"But we'll have to do something for them."

Vengeance, it seemed, wasn't what they wanted. The woman made
vehement gestures of rejection toward the village, then bowed,
placing her hands on her brow. The man imitated her obeisance, then
they both straightened. The woman pointed to herself and to the man,
and around the circle of huts and landing craft. She began scuttling
about, picking up imaginary litter and sweeping with an imaginary
broom. The man started pounding with an imaginary hammer, then
chopping with an imaginary ax.

Lillian was clapping her hands softly. "Good; got it the first time.
'You let us stay; we work for you.' How about it, Paul?"

Meillard nodded. "Punitive action's unadvisable, but we will show
our attitude by taking them in. You tell them, Luis; these people
seem to like your voice."

Gofredo put a hand on each of their shoulders. "You ... stay ...
with us." He pointed around the camp. "You ... stay ... this ...
place."

Their faces broke into that funny just-before-tears expression that
meant happiness with them. The man confined his vocal expressions to
his odd _ghroogh-ghroogh_-ing; the woman twittered joyfully. Gofredo
put a hand on the woman's shoulder, pointed to the man and from him
back to her. "Unh?" he inquired.

The woman put a hand on the man's head, then brought it down to
within a foot of the ground. She picked up the imaginary infant
and rocked it in her arms, then set it down and grew it up until
she had her hand on the top of the man's head again.

"That was good, Mom," Gofredo told her. "Now, you and Sonny come
along; we'll issue you equipment and find you billets." He added,
"What in blazes are we going to feed them; Extee Three?"

* * * * *

They gave them replacements for all the things that had been taken
away from them. They gave the man a one-piece suit of Marine combat
coveralls; Lillian gave the woman a lavender bathrobe, and Anna
contributed a red scarf. They found them quarters in one end of a
store shed, after making sure that there was nothing they could get