e
another look, see the problem not as it appears but as it really is."

"But isn't that the science of E?" Tom asked curiously. "To be able to
extrapolate any co-ordinate system? I'm not criticizing," he added
hastily. "Just asking."

"I suspect even our means of extrapolation are too limited, too based on
the relationship of things and forces to each other, too set in the
notion that only physical tools can affect physical things. We may be
looking at a low fence, calling it a log, and therefore not able to
understand why we can't walk around the obstruction in the usual
manner." He stopped, and added with a shrug. "Stupid, maybe. Or like the
turkey, the yard is so big that he never gets a picture of it as a whole
enclosure. By the time he's wandered down this side of the fence he's
forgot what he found on the other side. Never can put the whole thing
together in his mind. That's my trouble, anyhow. So far, I'm not able to
put the whole thing together, see it all as one piece.

"When I do, if I do, then maybe like a caged animal I'll see how to
unlock an opening, or maybe realize the only way out is to fly."

There beside the softly flowing river, where water was obeying natural
law without any trouble, the three men broke off their discussion when
they saw a bright flash high in the sky above them. All three knew what
it meant.

Another E ship had arrived.

No doubt the ship would expect light signals from the colonists in
acknowledgment of their space flare.

If the ship had come while this portion of the planet was still in
daylight, they would have seen there was no village, no ship, no
equipment for direct communication. They may even have reasoned there
was no means of signaling with artificial light.

But there was nothing to tell them that those on Eden could not build a
fire.

As if they were present on the ship themselves, the three men could
anticipate what must be happening there. Right now they would be
anxiously waiting for signal flares to light up, to spring up like
signal fires on a lonely island where a marooned man has, at last,
sighted a ship on the horizon.

The colonists were no longer hiding, but were freely wandering in open
spaces. If the ship had arrived before dusk they would have seen the men
and women in the viewscopes. If after dusk, they still might have
spotted them in the infrared viewers which picked up the heat
differentials and gave a fair approximation of shapes.

Th