instruments
with a man named Vale."

He told exactly, for the second time, what Vale said about the thing
from the sky and the creatures who came out of it. Then he told what
he'd done. But he omitted all reference to Jill. His coming to the
lake he ascribed to incredulity. Also, he did not mention meeting the
fleeing population of the construction camp. When his story was
finished he sounded like a man who'd done a very foolhardy thing, but
he didn't sound like a man with a girl on his mind.

The broad man with the moustache asked a question or two. The tall man
asked others. Lockley asked many.

The answers were frustrating. They hadn't seen their captors at all.
They'd heard squeaks when they were being brought to this place, and
the squeaks were obviously language, but no human one. They'd been
bound as well as blindfolded. They hadn't been offered food since
their capture, nor water. It seemed as if they'd been seized and put
into this metal compartment to wait for some use of them by their
captors.

"Maybe they want to teach us to talk," said the moustached man, "or
maybe they're goin' to carve us up to see what makes us tick. Or
maybe," he grimaced, "maybe they want to know if we're good to eat."

The chunky man said, "Why'd they blindfold us?"

Lockley had begun to have a very grim suspicion about this. It came
out of the realization of how remarkable it was that a ship designed
to be navigable in deep water should have landed in a deep crater
lake. He said, "Vale said at first that they weren't human, though
they were only specks in his binoculars. Later, when he saw them
close, he didn't say what they look like."

"Must be pretty weird," said the tall man.

"Maybe," said the man with the moustache, attempting humor, "maybe
they didn't want us to see them because we'd be scared. Or maybe they
didn't mean to blindfold us, but just to cover us up. Maybe they
wouldn't mind us seeing them, but it hurts for them to look at us!"

Lockley said abruptly, "This box we're in. It's made by humans."

The moustached man said quickly, "We figured that. It's the shell of
a compost pit for the hotel that's goin' to be built around here.
They'll sink it in the ground and dump garbage in it, and it'll rot,
and then it'll be fertilizer. These critters from space are just using
it to hold us. But what are they gonna do with us?"

There were faint squeakings. The cover to the round opening lifted.
Three rabbits droppe