She tried to identify, by sound, which
man was making the noise, but the shuffling of leaves was confusing, as
if more than one person were walking outside. And where was the other
man? Why had he made no sound in the outer room? Was he quietly drinking
up the wine--first? Then, distinctly, she recognized two pairs of feet
outside, going farther away, in the direction of the men's bunkhouse.

She could not bear the suspense. She sprang out of bed clutching one of
the blankets about her. Slowly, soundlessly, she opened her door a
crack. She could see no one in the flickering firelight of the room.
They had turned out the lights. Or--he had. She opened the door wide.

It had been they, not he. Both men had gone.

* * * * *

Inadvertently something between a sob and a hiccough rattled her throat.
She choked back another. She would not give way to ... rage? ...
frustration? ... relief? ... _fear?_

Fear!

She had seen the movies, she had read the stories, she had overheard
boys. "I'll fix you when we get outside! You meet me in the alley and
I'll show you!"

These two men. Were they going off into the darkness to settle a
conflict which they had not been able to resolve through sensible
agreement? There, under the trees in the moonlight, would they, denying
all the progress of the sacred centuries, would they revert to the
primitive, the savage; and like two rutting male animals rend and tear
and battle with one another for the only female?

Oh, no! No, they must not! There was no doubt that the lieutenant with
his great, massive strength.... But the human race of New Earth must
have the fine sensitivity, the lithe grace of Sam's kind, also!

She tugged the blanket around her shoulders and ran toward the door. She
must reach them, step in between them, even at the cost of receiving
some of the blows upon herself, make them realize....

She felt herself shivering as she opened the door, shivering as if with
an ague. She felt her face burning, as if with a fever. Her teeth were
chattering in anguish. She tried to still the noise of her teeth, to
listen for those horrible sounds of silent men in a death conflict
somewhere out there in the moonlight.

Then she saw a chink of light through a crack in the wall of the
bunkhouse, where the clay had dried and fallen away from the logs.

In there? What were they doing in there?

Instead of their fists and crushing arms, were they stalking