with the inhabitants--was as ticklish an act.

* * * * *

Step after slow step, we approached the floodlighted area, keeping
close together before that horde which still looked horrible to us.
One thing in our favor was that the Martians here had probably been
warned of our escape by whatever means of communication they used. And
they could certainly guess that our first objective would be our ship.
Hence they would not be startled into violence by our sudden
appearance.

One of them fired a shot which passed over our heads. But we kept on
going, making our movements as unfrightening as we could to counteract
the dread of us that they must have still felt.

Panic and the instinctive fear of the strange were balanced in our
minds against reason. We got to the nose of our ship, then to the open
doors of its airlock. The horde kept moving back before us and we
clambered inside. Martian eyes remained wary, but no more action was
taken against us.

Our cabin had been ransacked. Most of the loose stuff had been removed ...
even my picture of Alice, and our two kids.

"Who cares about trifles?" I muttered. "Rap on wood, guys--I think
we've won. So have the local people."

"You're right," Klein breathed. "What other reason can there be for
their not jumping us? Miller's passive strategy must've worked the
first time. The story that we meant no harm must have gotten around.
They don't want to make trouble, either. And who, with any sense
does?"

I felt good--maybe too good. I wondered if the Martians felt the same
eager fascination for the enigmas of space that we felt, in spite of
the same fear of the nameless that we too could feel. My guess was
that they did. Undoubtedly they also wanted interplanetary relations
to be smooth. They could control their instinctive doubts to help
attain this objective. If they coveted Earth's resources, it was still
far away, and could defend itself. Besides, they were not built to
live in comfort under the raw conditions of its strange environment.
Commerce was the only answer.

Suddenly Mars was no longer a hostile region to me, out in the reaches
of space. Again it was full of endless, intriguing mysteries. It was
beautiful. And knowledge of that beauty and mystery had been won, in
spite of some blundering. The scheme that we had practiced, and that
Miller had stuck to, had paid off. It had broken down that first
inevitable barrier of alienness betw