gain in complete innocence. You do not think straight because there is
no reason. You will be cared for. Woe unto him who seeks to despoil it
again by seeking vain knowledge!"

His eyes were wild, his face contorted with a mixture of exaltation and
condemnation.

"Shut up, Louie," Tom said in a low, firm voice.

"We understand," Jed said tolerantly. "Some of the colonists are talkin'
the same way. He's got plenty of company."

18

All the rest of that day, and throughout the following, Cal and Tom
worked with Jed in trying to round up the colonists, get them living
together again.

By agreement, Ahmed and Dirk stayed with the small band of colonists
that had overcome their fears enough to mingle together again. Louie
frankly deserted his shipmates, and spent all his time with the
colonists. Frank, as if reverting to his childhood farming days,
occupied himself with trying to round up the stock. He tried to keep the
cows separated from their calves so the colonists would have milk to
drink, but without ropes or corrals it was hopeless. He finally gave up
his attempt to husband the stock, and he too seemed content then to
mingle with the colonists.

The marked change in Louie could not be ignored, for he was not idling
away his time in lazy feeding and sleeping. He had dropped his lifelong
pose of superficial complaint that the fates always gave him the dirty
end of the stick, and now he spent his time preaching to the little band
of colonists. Or wandering through the forests and undergrowth calling,
praying, comforting.

Cal felt no condemnation for him. He was not the first man, seemingly
dedicated to science, who, confronted with mysteries beyond his power to
comprehend, reverted to childlike superstitious awe for an explanation.
In the face of mystery or catastrophe, it takes a faith beyond the
capacity of most to continue believing that the universe has a rational
order to its laws that can be comprehended if man persists. It is
temptingly easy for man to revert back to the irresponsibility of
childhood, assuming that the control of phenomena is in the hands of
those stronger, wiser than he. It takes a strength, in the face of this
temptation, to go on believing that man _can_ know, that it is not
morally wrong for him to know.

No blame then for Louie.

Tom was torn in his loyalties. He frequently remembered that away from
E.H.Q. the crew become the E's attendants, and that their first duty is