each
other. The rest were randomly located. There was a small plant growing
up through the hole in the left half of a pelvis. Somehow it looked
obscene, and I had to fight the impulse to tear it out. But it was
simply one of many, struggling for survival, that I'd seen growing here
and there throughout the area: a species that seemed to bear a familial
kinship to those that sprinkled the plain.

There was equipment: field kits, a minilab, a couple of blasters, each
showing full charge.

Cause of death: that was the enigma.

"So far I'm stumped," I said into the minicomm. "I've retrieved a few
scraps of uniform bearing stains. Maybe analysis can discover something.
The tapes say that E-T's birds and mammals are comparatively rare, but
_comparative_ doesn't mean much in the light of what I've seen. So far,
though, everything I can come up with seems totally inadequate.
Bacterial invasion, animal attack, insect incursion--none were problems
with the first survey gang, so why should they be now? Rule out gas
poisoning or allied concomitants; the suit tab shows white. Speaking of
that--I'm peeling now. Keep your fingers crossed."

* * * * *

The air was warm and still, heavy with the ubiquitous smells and sounds
of wilderness.

I was in the approximate area of the first team's camp. As per custom,
they had struck the plastidome, dismantled the scanners, power panels,
and other reusable equipment, and destroyed the debris of occupancy. The
clearing had repaired itself. But for the slight concavities on the
hilltop that marked shuttler settlings, there was little to indicate
their previous presence.

I sat down and waited.

The suicide complex has never been a part of my psyche, but there are
times when you have to place yourself in jeopardy; it's occupational,
and I've got the gray hair, worry lines, and scars to prove it.

I waited for three long hours.

The sweat dampness of my uniform evaporated only to be replaced by the
stains of new perspiration. I sucked in great gulps of E-T's air and
found it consistently comfortable in my lungs. Insects came,
investigated, and retreated, mostly because of urging. I was not
approached by anything larger than a line of creatures the size of
Vici-Terran milatants, and I was able to avoid them by evasive action.
As far as I could determine, I wasn't invaded by anything microscopic or
sub-microscopic either, because at the end of the three hou