tter not to mark their
first day on this new world with a killing--even if it were the
knocking over of a stupid rabbit thing. The pilot was glad when Chou
bore it off and he no longer had to look at it.

It was after the evening meal that Raf was called into consultation by
the officers to receive his orders. When he reported that the flitter,
barring unexpected accidents, would be air-borne by the following
afternoon, he was shown an enlarged picture from the records made
during the descent of the _RS 10_.

There was a city, right enough--showing up well from the air. Hobart
stabbed a finger down into the heart of it.

"This lies south from here. We'll cruise in that direction."

Raf would have liked to ask some questions of his own. The city
photographed was a sizable one. Why then this deserted land here? Why
hadn't the inhabitants been out to investigate the puzzle of the space
ship's landing? He said slowly, "I've mounted one gun, sir. Do you
want the other installed? It will mean that the flitter can only carry
three instead of four--"

Hobart pulled his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger. He
glanced at his lieutenant then to Lablet, sitting quietly to one side.
It was the latter who spoke first.

"I'd say this shows definite traces of retrogression." He touched the
photograph. "The place may even be only a ruin."

"Very well. Leave off the other gun," Hobart ordered crisply. "And be
ready to fly at dawn day after tomorrow with full field kit. You're
sure she'll have at least a thousand-mile cruising radius?"

Raf suppressed a shrug. How could you tell what any machine would do
under new conditions? The flitter had been put through every possible
test in his home world. Whether she would perform as perfectly here
was another matter.

"They thought she would, sir," he replied. "I'll take her up for a
shakedown run tomorrow after the motor is installed."

Captain Hobart dismissed him with a nod, and Raf was glad to clatter
down ladders into the cool of the evening once more. Flying high in a
formation of two lanes were some distant birds, at least he supposed
they were birds. But he did not call attention to them. Instead he
watched them out of sight, lingering alone with no desire to join
those crew members who had built a campfire a little distance from the
ship. The flames were familiar and cheerful, a portion, somehow, of
their native world transported to the new.

Raf could hear the murmu