together. They awoke Frank and Martha,
Ahmed and Dirk, and told them of their plan. Louie, too, awoke, heard
the plan, and tried to warn them against it. Any attempt, he said, to
communicate with those not on Eden would surely increase the wrath of
Those who wanted only the natural state here--a wrath still withheld
because of superhuman mercy, but which must not be tried too far.

In spite of his warnings, Cal, and those co-operating with him, got
together enough colonists to carry out his plan.

Good-naturedly, the colonists did as they were told, but with the
attitude that it was something amusing, that there was nothing they'd
rather be doing at the moment. Any sense of urgency about communicating
with home seemed to have been washed from their minds.

In a clear space, on the soft grass, Cal got the colonists to sit or lie
in certain positions. Checked against Tom's knowledge of ancient signal
patterns, those certain positions took the shape of space-navy patterns.

Three men lay in a triangle. Next to that, six men sat in a circle, and
last three more men lay in another triangle. Cal hoped someone on the
ship would be able to read the ancient message.

"Keep clear of me. I am maneuvering with difficulty."

The signal had no more than formed when there was a flash from the ship
so bright that it could be seen in the morning sky. They had read his
signal, and now they began a series of flashes, of questions. "What's
going on down there?" was the essence of their questioning.

It was well the ship had caught the first signal, for the colonists lost
all interest in the game which had no point. They simply stood up and
wandered away in search of their breakfasts from the trees and bushes.

Louie, who had stood to one side glowering, now took charge of them
again and shepherded them to a grove of trees where the fruit seemed
especially large and succulent.

But now that the ship had spotted him, Cal could signal alone. He lay
down on the ground, himself, to move his arms in semaphore positions.
But even as he lay back, he became conscious that he, too, could hardly
care less. With a detached interest that amounted to amusement at such
childish, primitive things, he watched his arms spell out one more
message.

"Keep off! No mechanical science allowed in this co-ordinate system."

He stood up then, and made a farewell gesture toward the ship.

At that instant he felt strangely that he had passed into another