"No." She shook her head with a faint trace of his own disgust. "No,
Duke. Mrs. Kalaufa told me ... you're not really the same race--Not as
close as you are to an Earth animal, and you don't call that
cannibalism. Nobody on Meloa has ever been a cannibal--yet! How much
money do you have, Duke?"

He took it out and handed it to her. She counted it mechanically and
handed it back. "Not enough. You can't take me away when you leave
here."

"I'm not leaving," he told her. He dropped the money back on the
blanket beside her.

She stared at him for a moment and then pulled herself up to her feet,
moving toward the door. "Good-by, Duke. And get off Meloa. You can't
help us any more. And I don't want you here when I get desperate enough
to remember you might take me back. I like you too much for that, even
now."

He took a step toward her, and she ducked.

"Get out!" She screamed it at him. "Do you think I can stand looking at
you without drooling any longer? Do you want me to call Mrs. Kalaufa
for help?"

Through the open door, he saw Mrs. Kalaufa across the street, still
cradling the child. As the door slammed shut behind him, the woman
screamed, either as a summons or from fear that he'd seek revenge on
her. He saw other heads appear, with frantic eyes that stared sullenly
at the gun he carried. He stumbled down the street, where rain was
beginning to fall, conscious that it would be night before he got back
to the port. He no longer cared.

There was no place for him here, he now saw. He was still an Earthman,
and Earthmen were always treated as a race apart somehow. He didn't
belong. Nor could he go back to a life on Earth. But there were still
the recruiting stations there; so long as war existed, there had to be
such stations. He headed for the fat ships of Earth that squatted
complacently on the wrecked port.

IV

Prince Queeth of Sugfarth had left the royal belt behind, and only a
plain band encircled his round little body as he trotted along, his
four legs making almost no sound. His double pair of thin arms and the
bird-like head on his long neck bobbled excitedly in time to his steps.
Once he stopped to glance across the black stone buildings of the city
as they shone in the dull red of the sun, toward the hill where his
father's palace was lighted brightly for the benefit of his Earth
guests. Queeth touched his ears together ceremoniously and then trotted
on, until he came to the back door