ition
at slightly higher base pay but without the three hundred per cent
extraterrestrial bonus, and he would vegetate there till he retired.
Every time his name came up, somebody would say, "Oh, yes; he
flubbed the contact on Whatzit."

It wouldn't do the rest of them any good, either. There would
always be the suspicion that they had contributed to the failure.

* * * * *

_Bwaaa-waaa-waaanh!_

The wavering sound hung for an instant in the air. A few seconds
later, it was repeated, then repeated again.

"Our cannon's a horn," Gofredo said. "I can't see how they're
blowing it, though."

There was a stir to right and left, among the Marines deployed
in a crescent line on either side of the contact team; a metallic
clatter as weapons were checked. A shadow fell in front of them
as a combat-car moved into position above.

"What do you suppose it means?" Meillard wondered.

"Terrans, go home." He drew a frown from Meillard with the
suggestion. "Maybe it's supposed to intimidate us."

"They're probably doing it to encourage themselves," Anna de Jong,
the psychologist, said. "I'll bet they're really scared stiff."

"I see how they're blowing it," Gofredo said. "The man who's walking
behind it has a hand-bellows." He raised his voice. "Fix bayonets!
These people don't know anything about rifles, but they know what
spears are. They have some of their own."

So they had. The six who walked in the lead were unarmed, unless
the thing one of them carried was a spear. So, it seemed, were the
horn-bearers. Behind them, however, in an open-order skirmish-line,
came fifty-odd with weapons. Most of them had spears, the points
glinting redly. Bronze, with a high copper content. A few had bows.
They came slowly; details became more plainly visible.

The leader wore a long yellow robe; the thing in his hand was a
bronze-headed staff. Three of his companions also wore robes; the
other two were bare-legged in short tunics. The horn-bearers wore
either robes or tunics; the spearmen and bowmen behind either wore
tunics or were naked except for breechclouts. All wore sandals. They
were red-brown in color, completely hairless; they had long necks,
almost chinless lower jaws, and fleshy, beaklike noses that gave
them an avian appearance which was heightened by red crests, like
roosters' combs, on the tops of their heads.

"Well, aren't they something to see?" Lillian Ransby, the linguist asked.