Pointedly waiting until a name was supplied him, Ken remained silent.

“Now, Chaminade,” a tall, skeletal man began, touching his superior's arm deferentially, “I'm well acquainted with Reeve's father-in-law; you know Masaryk in Detailing and . . .”

“Yes, Chaminade,” Ken interrupted, “I reported seeing a giant reptile. It was no, particularly interested in me as it was busy eating a mare at the time. I didn't wait to be introduced then, either.” Ken heard Pat's indrawn gasp of astonishment.

“The mare was being ridden by one of your so-called cat natives?” asked Chaminade contemptuously.

“No. And Hrrula is a natural horseman, unlike us poor ill-equipped ill-trained fools who landed here on an unexplored, improperly surveyed, inhabited planet, expecting by the sweat of our brows and the galls on our asses to make it our home.”

Ken ignored Hu Shin's frantic gestures.

"Furthermore, I'll take you to see my giant reptile that is not listed among the things that walk, swim, fly and crawl on idyllic Doona. Of course, it too may have disappeared, like our natives and our villages. And my six-year-old son. But spare us the contemptuous glance and the patronizing sneer. We could easily have denied ourselves the pleasure of your charming company but we thought that a certain basic principle was involved and in all innocence reported the violation. However, the matter is no longer your concern, but Alreldep's and I just hope the hell that that omniscient, omnipotent agency stirs itself to do more than try to pass the buck again.

“Eckerd, warm up the copter. I insist on showing these gentlemen,” and Ken larded that courtesy title with venom, “another of our own special, personalized Doonan hallucinations.”

Turning on his heel, Ken strode from the hall, not really caring if the Codep men followed but knowing they would.

Despite an overload, the copter made it to the plain in considerably less time than it had taken Ken to cover the distance. Coldly he pointed out the swollen body of the immense reptile. It lay, torpid with sun and satiation, the mare's carcass straining the skin of its midsection coils.

Chaminade alone maintained his composure. When no one asked Eckerd to make a second pass over the reptile, Buzz opened the copter up, leaving the scene in haste. Ken sadistically noted the varying reactions of horror, fear and active nausea.

“I cannot understand, however,” Chaminade remarked coolly, “why you have allowed a child of such tender years to wander unprotected with such menaces as this in the vicinity.”

“You don't know Todd,” Eckerd answered him nervously when Ken kept silent. “Besides, Mr. Chaminade, as Ken pointed out, we didn't know there were such menaces as gigantic reptiles and catlike natives on Doona, Not that the natives are menaces, mind you.”

«We're the menaces, Chaminade,» Ken snapped. «Or rather, you're the menace because you won't look at something you don't want to see: at something that threatens your oh-so-comfortable niche; your oh-so-comfortable theories and procedures, and your all-important status – which Doona threatens with its reptiles and its natives. Well, you all have to admit you saw a reptile back on that plain, with an undigested mare carcass midsection . . .»

“Mr. Reeve, is that necessary?” the skeletal man demanded, his complexion tinged with green.

“No, not necessary but true. Or are you going to erase that from your tapes too, because, like us, it's too much for your overcivilized mental digestion to cope with?”

Chaminade did not waste energy sputtering with indignation as did his colleagues. But his eyes narrowed and he bore a striking resemblance to the fat reptile under discussion.

“You know, Chaminade,” Reeve continued inexorably, “I know why Codep made up that Non-Cohabitation Principle. And don't give me that nonsense we've all been so carefully conditioned to accept. Do you know the real reason?”

“Perhaps you'd better tell me,” suggested Chaminade very quietly and very gently.

Eckerd shot Ken an appealing look, a halfhearted attempt to restrain him.

«Because we Terrans would make such a miserable showing compared with the most barbaric tribes in their own environment that the myth of Terran superiority would be exploded forever. We're not trained, as barbarians are, to survive no matter what the odds against us. Last winter three of us damn near froze to death because we didn't have sense enough to recognize the danger of a blizzard. I won't count the number of near fatal accidents with the most primitive of implements until we mastered them. And it was sheer good fortune that we had enough pre-processed foods to last us through the long cold because we couldn't have killed a brna if it had sat down to be killed. It took us months to be able to butcher what we did manage to kill, and a few more months to get hungry enough to eat it because of our conditioned revulsion to natural foods. All we'd been trained to do – in spite of all our book learning – was to exist – stupefied, spread out Hall by Corridor, by the Aisleful – stale, stupid, stagnating.»

“Why, this is preposterous!” Skinny exclaimed, shocked. “When I tell your father-in-law . . .”

“Tell him anything you want,” Reeve snapped, not taking his eyes from Chaminade. “He'll listen to you. He has to. I don't.”

“You ought to,” Chaminade reminded him softly with a slight smile.

“You mean because you're Codep?” said Ken as the copter landed. “Oh, Chaminade, we're not under your jurisdiction any longer. Nor is this problem, you'll be relieved to know, on your backs. The Hrrubans are not native to this planet. So we are officially, and by the fine print in our contract tapes, part of Alreldep. And the sooner they get here and attend to the business at hand the better. Not that I expect any more intelligent treatment from their hands than we've had from you and Spacedep.”

Ducking his head, Ken jumped from the copter brushing past the anxiously awaiting colonists and striding across the bridge.

ALTHOUGH HE KNEW a search would prove futile Reeve went directly to the village site. Grudgingly he admitted that the Hrruban disappearing act was thorough. He stood on the site of Hrrestan's home, in the spot where Hrriss's room ought to be. He kicked and prodded through the mulch and uncovered not the slightest trace of habitation.

Whatever their motives, he was positive that the Hrrubans intended no harm to Todd. The boy was safe with them and probably far happier than he had been in his own settlement, among his own people. That thought no longer rankled. Ken had come to realize that he would have to wait until Todd bestowed his friendship and affection on his father; it did no good to chase after it. If Ken didn't force himself on Todd, Todd would someday decide to trust him.

Ken sat gingerly down on the cushiony mulch and tried to draw some rational conclusion from the present disappearance. Actually, the Hrrubans could have escorted Todd to Saddle Ridge. The kid've been safe. Why had they taken Todd along with them? And what kind of time did they need? Their technology must be considerably more advanced than the Terrans to effect such a total withdrawal. Ken snorted to himself; it had taken them no time at all to develop those convenient artifacts, all of bona fide Doona origin.

The quiet glade calmed him and the sweet cinnamony perfume of the forest soothed his overburdened senses. He relaxed enough to fall asleep, until the orange eye of the sun glinted warning of day's end. Reluctantly, but feeling refreshed, Ken rose and went back to the settlement.

Pat raced across the bridge as soon as she saw him. Knowing how anxious she must be, Ken felt conscience-stricken for his delay, and ran to meet her.