p touching your throat?" demanded Tanub.

"I'm nervous," said Orne. "Guns always make me nervous."

The muzzle lowered slightly.

"Shall we continue on to your city?" asked Orne. He wet his lips with
his tongue. The cab light on Tanub's face was giving the Gienahn an
eerie sinister look.

"We can go soon," said Tanub.

"Will you join me inside here?" asked Orne. "There's a passenger seat
right behind me."

Tanub's eyes moved catlike: right, left. "Yes." He turned, barked an
order into the jungle gloom, then climbed in behind Orne.

"When do we go?" asked Orne.

"The great sun will be down soon," said Tanub. "We can continue as soon
as Chiranachuruso rises."

"Chiranachuruso?"

"Our satellite ... our moon," said Tanub.

"It's a beautiful word," said Orne. "Chiranachuruso."

"In our tongue it means: The Limb of Victory," said Tanub. "By its light
we will continue."

Orne turned, looked back at Tanub. "Do you mean to tell me that you can
see by what light gets down here through those trees?"

"Can you not see?" asked Tanub.

"Not without the headlights."

"Our eyes differ," said Tanub. He bent toward Orne, peered. The vertical
slit pupils of his eyes expanded, contracted. "You are the same as the
... others."

"Oh, on the _Delphinus_?"

Pause. "Yes."

Presently, a greater gloom came over the jungle, bringing a sudden
stillness to the wild life. There was a chittering commotion from the
natives in the trees around the sled. Tanub shifted behind Orne.

"We may go now," he said. "Slowly ... to stay behind my ... scouts."

"Right." Orne eased the sled forward around an obstructing root.

* * * * *

Silence while they crawled ahead. Around them shapes flung themselves
from vine to vine.

"I admired your city from the air," said Orne. "It is very beautiful."

"Yes," said Tanub. "Why did you land so far from it?"

"We didn't want to come down where we might destroy anything."

"There is nothing to destroy in the jungle," said Tanub.

"Why do you have such a big city?" asked Orne.

Silence.

"I said: Why do you--"

"You are ignorant of our ways," said Tanub. "Therefore, I forgive you.
The city is for our race. We must breed and be born in sunlight.
Once--long ago--we used crude platforms on the tops of the trees. Now
... only the ... wild ones do this."

Stetson's voice hissed in Orne's ears: _"Easy on the sex line, boy.
That's always touchy. These creatures