ere reached, a very gradual reduction of pressure in the
mocker cages was started; one that would cover a period of weeks. One
pair of mockers survived and had two young ones that fall. The young
mockers, like the first generation of Ragnarok-born children of many
years before, were more adapted to their environment than their parents
were.

The orange corn was planted, using an adaptation method somewhat similar
to that used with the mockers. It might have worked had the orange corn
not required such a long period of time in which to reach maturity. When
winter came only a few grains had formed.

They were saved for next year's seeds, to continue the slow adaptation
process.

By the fifth year the youngest generation of mockers was well adapted to
the elevation of the caves but for a susceptibility to a quickly fatal
form of pneumonia which made it necessary to keep them from exposing
themselves to the cold or to any sudden changes of temperature.

Their intelligence was surprising and they seemed to be partially
receptive to human thoughts, as Bill Humbolt had written. By the end of
the fifteenth year their training had reached such a stage of perfection
that a mocker would transmit or not transmit with only the unspoken
thought of its master to tell it which it should be. In addition, they
would transmit the message to whichever mocker their master's thought
directed. Presumably all mockers received the message but only the
mocker to whom it was addressed would repeat it aloud.

They had their method of communication. They had their automatic
crossbows for quick, close fighting, and their long range longbows. They
were fully adapted to the 1.5 gravity and their reflexes were almost
like those of prowlers--Ragnarok had long ago separated the quick from
the dead.

There were eight hundred and nineteen of them that year, in the early
spring of one hundred and fifty, and they were ready and impatient for
the coming of the Gerns.

Then the transmitter, which had been in operation again for many years,
failed one day.

George Craig had finished checking it when Lake arrived. He looked up
from his instruments, remarkably similar in appearance to a sketch of
the old George Ord--a resemblance that had been passed down to him by
his mother--and said:

"The entire circuit is either gone or ready to go. It's already operated
for a lot longer than it should have."

"It doesn't matter," Lake said. "It's served its pur