reaction had not been terror or
even any great degree of surprise.

He was a scientist and he had a scientist's curiosity.

And at first the Cirissins--or the one that had done all the
talking--had been cooperative in answering his questions. But then, when
he wasn't able to comprehend what they meant by high dragon bump, they'd
started getting impatient.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl. She was making gentle swimming
motions with her hands and feet, moving gradually closer to him.

"Sheilah," she said. "Sheilah Ralue. I'm a model. I pose for pitchers.
You know--for sexy magazines and calendars and stuff like that."

"I see. You were posing when--?"

"When they snatched me, yeah. Couple hours ago, I guess. The flash bulb
went off and blinded me for a second like it always does, and I seemed
to be falling. Then I was here. Only I still don't even know where here
is. Do you? How come we don't weigh nothing? It's ghastly!"

"We're in a space ship," Wayne told her. "In free fall, circling earth a
thousand miles or so out. I thought you at least knew we were in a space
ship."

The girl said, "Oh, bull. We can't be in no space ship. How'd we get
here so fast?"

"They have a matter transmitter, but I haven't the slightest idea of how
it works. Obviously it's limited to living creatures or they could just
as well have taken whatever it is they want instead of ... You don't
happen to know what a high dragon bump is, do you?"

"Don't be dumb. Of course I ... well, unless it's a dance or something.
I use to be a dancer, ya know. Sort of."

"With bubbles, I imagine," Wayne said.

"Tassels. They was my specialty. But there's more money in posing for
pitchers, and the work ain't quite so--"

"I doubt that a high dragon bump is a dance," Wayne said.

Then he rubbed his chin. High dragon bump? Bumps and grinds? Highland
fling? Chinese dragon dances? Hell, why not?

The idea of space travelers visiting earth to learn a new dance was no
more fantastic than the idea of them being here at all.

Wayne turned his face to the door and shouted, "Hey, is that it? A
dance? You want us to teach you a dance called the high dragon bump?"

A muffled metallic voice from the other side said, "Nod danz. Bump.
Huguff quig."

Wayne shrugged and grinned weakly at Sheilah. "Well, we're making
headway. We know one thing that it isn't."

The girl had drifted so close to him now that he could feel the warmth
of her body and sme