hen it seemed the
thing was galloping closer, charging down upon him, he ran away. It must
stay on the horizon, moving on, always moving, staying out of his grasp.

"All you guys, for'ard 'arch!"

Jack did not move. The truck from the rocket had come through a gate and
stopped by the transies, and about fifty men were getting off the back.

The man behind Jack bumped into him. Jack paid him no attention. He did
not move. He squinted at the group who had come from the rocket. They
were very tall, hump-shouldered, and dressed in light grey-green Palm
Beach suits and tan Panama hats. Each held a brown leather briefcase at
the end of a long, thin arm. Each wore on the bridge of his long nose a
pair of rose-colored glasses.

A cry broke hoarsely from the transies. Some of those in front of Jack
fell to their knees as if a sudden poison had paralyzed their legs. They
called names and stretched out open hands. A boy by Jack's side sprawled
face-down on the sand while he uttered over and over again, "Mr.
Pelopoeus! Mr. Pelopoeus!"

The name meant nothing to Jack. He did feel repulsed at seeing the
fellow turn on his side, bend his neck forward, bring his clenched fists
up against his chest, and jackknife his legs against his arms. He had
seen it many times before in the transie jungles, but he had never
gotten over the sickness it had first caused him.

He turned away and came almost nose to nose with one of the men from the
rocket. He had put down his briefcase so it rested against his leg and
taken a white handkerchief out of his breast pocket to wipe the dust
from his lenses. His lids were squeezed shut as if he found the lights
unbearable.

Jack stared and could not move while a name that the boy behind him had
been crying out slowly worked its way through his consciousness.
Suddenly, like the roar of a flashflood that is just rounding the bend
of a dry gulch, the syllables struck him. He lunged forward and clutched
at the spectacles in the man's hand. At the same time he yelled over and
over the words that had filled out the blank in his memory.

"Mr. Eumenes! Mr. Eumenes!"

A sergeant cursed and slammed his fist into Jack's face. Jack fell down,
flat on his back. Though his jaw felt as if it were torn loose from its
hinge, he rolled over on his side, raised himself on his hands and
knees, and began to get up to his feet.

"Stand still!" bellowed the sergeant. "Stay in formation or you'll get
more of the same!"