al mountain to make a base.
A ring of reefs cut off the land from the action of the waves. At once
a party of aliens left the main company and made their way down the
mountain to prowl along the shore. They made a discovery of sorts, for
Raf saw them ring in some object they had pulled up on the sand. What
it was and what meaning it had for them they did not try to explain to
the Terrans.

The party spent the night there, the four spacemen wrapped in their
sleeping rolls by the flitter, the aliens in their globe ship. The
Terrans did not miss the fact that the others had unobtrusively posted
guards at the only two places where the mountain could be climbed. And
each of those guards cradled in the crook of his arm one of the rifle
weapons.

They were aroused shortly after dawn. As far as Raf could see the
island was barren of life, or else any creature native to it kept
prudently out of the way while the flyers were there. They took off,
the globe rising like a balloon into the morning sky, the flitter
waiting until it was air-borne before scaling after it.

The mountainous island where they had based was the sea sentinel of an
archipelago, which they saw spread out below them as if someone had
flung a handful of pebbles into a shallow pool. Most of the islands
were merely rocky crags. But there were two which showed the green of
small open fields, and Raf thought he caught a glimpse of a dome house
on the last.

They were now over a region thick with islands, the first collection
giving way to a second and then a third. Raf, expecting no sudden move
on the part of the globe he trailed, was startled when the alien ship
made a downward swoop. At the same time the warrior seated beside him
tugged at the sleeve of his tunic and jabbed a finger toward the
ground, clearly an order to follow. Raf cut speed and cautiously lost
altitude, determined that he was not going to be rushed into any move
for which he did not know the reason.

The globe was hovering over a small island set a little apart from the
others. A moment later Soriki's excited voice drew Raf's attention
from his controls to what was going on below.

"There's, people down there! Look at them run!"

They were too far away to be sure of the nature of the brown-gray
things so close to the color of the sea-washed rock that they could
only be detected when they moved. But it was evident that they were
alive, and as Raf brought the flitter closer, he was also