The wavering line stopped again. Segments began to retreat, first singly, then in pairs and groups. All but a handful of the most curious suddenly bounded for the forest and disappeared.
The others came forward again, but with increasing bewilderment.
Repeatedly, they raised their noses and sniffed the air.
Bailey said from behind us, "They catch our scent and don"t know what to make of it. Thank heavens most of them took off. We can handle a dozen of them easily enough."
Our people opened ranks and let the little creatures infiltrate. Sue squeezed my arm. "Why, they"re beautiful little things! They make me feel self-conscious with my bleached-out skin. They certainly look intelligent, those eyes--no fear in them at all--look, they"re even smiling!"
Indeed, several of the creatures were grinning broadly at the male members of our party. They found our clothing amusing.
Now we could hear their soft voices conversing in a language that was liquid with a great many compound vowel sounds, not unlike Earth"s Finnish tongue. Their quick, dark eyes seemed to take in everything.
They seemed torn between a consuming curiosity and a strong aversion to our scent. One by one they satisfied the former and yielded to the latter, dropping back and racing for the forest in great, joyous bounds punctuated with happy little whoops of undefinable emotion.
At last only one, chesty little male was left. Benson exhaled heavily beside me. "It"s the little fellow we saw on the beach, Sam. Look, he"s coming through."
A tawny stripe of brown, furry hair ran from his high forehead, over the crown of his proud skull and down his neck to fade into the typical, deep, golden fuzz of his body. As he approached the ramp I saw that his face was smooth, entirely free of hair as though clean-shaven.
By now Benson was as fascinated as the rest of us. I stepped down in front of him to confront our visitor. I placed a hand on my chest and said, "Sam Rogers!"
The dark eyes swept from my feet to my head and fastened upon my face.
He pointed four long fingers at me and repeated distinctly, "Samrogers."
My name is easy to p.r.o.nounce, but it was a shock to hear it from the lips of an extra-terrestrial being.
Then he placed the same hand on his own chest and said, "Joe!" Actually, it came out with a rapid widening and narrowing of his lips that sounded like a quick version of, "Jo-ah-o-ah-oh," but the vowel echoes were so rapid that for practical purposes it read, "Joe," to me.
I pointed my hand at him and repeated, "Joe!" He looked vaguely disappointed at my crude aspiratory control, but then a bright smile creased his c.o.c.ky little face. His hand flicked out and back.
"Samrogers--Joe."
Involuntarily I nodded my head. He nodded back and smiled again. Before I could think of what comes after, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume," he wrinkled his nose, squinted his eyes, whirled and darted off for the timber.
We stood rooted for a minute, then Bailey said, "We must really stink.
Plucky little fellow took it as long as he could."
Benson looked back at Bailey and me. "Well, what do you think?"
I looked at Bailey, and he looked at Dr. Sorenson. "Lord, I don"t know.
Except for the possibility of microbe infection, they appear perfectly harmless to me," Sorenson said.
I said, "Since they don"t like our scent there doesn"t seem to be much danger of contact. Phil, why don"t we call off the yellow alert with the exception of a rule or two about fraternization in closed s.p.a.ces?"
Benson looked over his people. All were paired off now, husband with wife. And to a man their arms were wrapped protectively around their respective spouses, watching for the decision. Their faces read, "Is this innocuous little race of people the cause of all the trouble?"
Benson rubbed the gray of his temple with a knuckle. He mounted the ramp and announced, "The emergency is reduced to a blue alert. Women will have the freedom of the clearing and the visible beach, but only authorized working parties will enter the forest. Men will continue to wear sidearms. When outside shelters are complete we will sleep in them, but until then, or until we are better informed about the natives, we shall continue sleeping in the ship."
The new order of the day did nothing to mitigate the resentment and tension, but it did accelerate a.s.sembly of the lumber mill and house construction. The little Sirians seemed to have satisfied their curiosity, for they left us to our labors for a whole week.
The first building of our projected village was completed on the seventh day. It was little more than a two-room shanty, but it represented the most sought after prize of the moment, _privacy_!
We drew lots for it, and, with the uncommon justice, one of the hardest working amateur carpenters won. The women brought in armloads of gra.s.s for a couch and decorated it with wild-flowers. When evening fell it seemed like an occasion for a celebration, and Benson relented on the evening curfew.
We gathered sc.r.a.ps from the lumber mill, carefully cleared a sandy strip on the beach of all inflammable matter and built a huge bonfire. In the rich atmosphere even the green wood burned merrily, spitting green sap and sending up clouds of pungent, aromatic smoke.
Sue had just curled up in the crook of my arm, and we were working on a case of Earth-nostalgia, when we noticed our visitors again. They came bounding, up to the wide rim of the firelight. They jabbered in excited, ecstatic voices but stopped short of our human a.s.sembly. Only one, I recognized him as Joe, picked his way through us and came close to inspect the crackling blaze.
Fascinated, Sue and I watched his profile contort with an expression of immense admiration. It was not the awe of a savage, but the heartfelt appreciation of a human for a rare and beautiful spectacle.
"Fire must be unknown to them," Sue whispered.
"At least mighty rare," I said. "The handbook says no volcanoes and no thunderstorms."
Joe turned at the sound of our low voices. With eyes half-blinded by the glare he searched for me. "Samrogers!" he called clearly. "Samrogers!"
I rose to my feet and answered, "Joe! Right here, Joe."
He picked his way over to me, smiling broadly and glancing back at the fire every step or two. A pace away he stopped, pointed at me, said, "Samrogers," pointed at himself, said, "Joe!" _then pointed at the fire and waited_.
It was a clearly indicated question. I answered it respectfully, "Fire!"
He repeated, "Fire," and his eyes glowed like sparks. Then he made gestures of picking up some of the fire and taking it away, turning to me to pose the question.
Sorenson, propped up on an elbow, said, "I"ll be d.a.m.ned. He"s asking you to give him some of the fire."
"No," Benson said. "He knows fire, knows you can"t take the flames. He"s asking for _the means to build a fire_."
I faced Joe, shook my head solemnly and said, "No!" To give meaning to the word I sat down and turned my head away for a moment. When I looked back Joe was looking very disappointed. It made Sue so sad that she held out a wedge of sweet melon to him. Joe accepted the gift easily, gracefully and with a small smile of "thank you". He turned back, squatted as near the blaze as comfort would permit and chewed absently at the melon.
Thereafter he ignored the animated conversation that sprang up among us.
Jane wanted to know why we didn"t give him one of our lighters. "He"s just as intelligent as we are," she insisted. She got no argument on that score, but her husband pointed out that the golden people were unaccustomed to handling fire, and that during the present dry season even the green foliage might take off in a holocaust if ignited in this rich, oxygen air.
Even as he spoke, a long, slender pole, flaming at one end, toppled from the settling fire and rolled near Joe. With scarcely a pause to debate, he leaped to his feet, grabbed the pole by the cool end and waved it aloft like a torch.
With a triumphant yell he plunged through us and out across the field bearing his prize aloft trailing sparks.
I tried to shoot low, but my light caliber pellet caught him rather high in the thigh. He dived to the ground senseless in a shower of sparks.
His fellow creatures immediately gathered around him. When we closed in to retrieve the fire-wand and stamp out the sparks, the other natives faded away, crinkling their noses. They made no effort to remove Joe, but cast many admiring glances back at the fire he had stolen.
Sue came up storming at me. "You didn"t have to _shoot_ him." She started to kneel down beside him, but Dr. Bailey restrained her.
"Easy, Susan. Remember the quarantine."
"We can"t let him lie there and bleed to death," I said, feeling unaccountably ashamed for my deed, although there was scarcely an alternative.
Benson came up, "Nice shot, Sam."