someplace."
"What kind of people are they?"
"Well, the story is that they're originally from Mars. They don't lookmuch like Martians, though. They're dark, a kind of coppery color. Thin.Very agile, in their own way. They hunt and fish. No written language.We don't pay much attention to them."
"I see." Harris paused. "Chief, have you ever heard of anythingcalled--The Pipers?"
"The Pipers?" Watts frowned. "No. Why?"
"The patients mentioned something called The Pipers. According toBradshaw, the Pipers taught him to become a plant. He learned it fromthem, a kind of teaching."
"The Pipers. What are they?"
"I don't know," Harris admitted. "I thought maybe you might know. Myfirst assumption, of course, was that they're the natives. But now I'mnot so sure, not after hearing your description of them."
"The natives are primitive savages. They don't have anything to teachanybody, especially a top-flight biologist."
Harris hesitated. "Chief, I'd like to go into the woods and look around.Is that possible?"
"Certainly. I can arrange it for you. I'll give you one of the men toshow you around."
"I'd rather go alone. Is there any danger?"
"No, none that I know of. Except--"
"Except the Pipers," Harris finished. "I know. Well, there's only oneway to find them, and that's it. I'll have to take my chances."
* * * * *
"If you walk in a straight line," Chief Watts said, "you'll findyourself back at the Garrison in about six hours. It's a damn smallasteroid. There's a couple of streams and lakes, so don't fall in."
"How about snakes or poisonous insects?"
"Nothing like that reported. We did a lot of tramping around at first,but it's grown back now, the way it was. We never encountered anythingdangerous."
"Thanks, Chief," Harris said. They shook hands. "I'll see you beforenightfall."
"Good luck." The Chief and his two armed escorts turned and went backacross the rise, down the other side toward the Garrison. Harris watchedthem go until they disappeared inside the building. Then he turned andstarted into the grove of trees.
The woods were very silent around him as he walked. Trees towered up onall sides of him, huge dark-green trees like eucalyptus. The groundunderfoot was soft with endless leaves that had fallen and rotted intosoil. After a while the grove of high trees fell behind and he foundhimself crossing a dry meadow, the grass and weeds burned brown in thesun. Insects buzzed around him, rising up from the dry weed-stalks.Something scuttled ahead, hurrying through the undergrowth. He caughtsight of a grey ball with many legs, scampering furiously, its antennaeweaving.
The meadow ended at the bottom of a hill. He was going up, now, goinghigher and higher. Ahead of him an endless expanse of green rose, acresof wild growth. He scrambled to the top finally, blowing and panting,catching his breath.
He went on. Now he was going down again, plunging into a deep gully.Tall ferns grew, as large as trees. He was entering a living Jurassicforest, ferns that stretched out endlessly ahead of him. Down he went,walking carefully. The air began to turn cold around him. The floor ofthe gully was damp and silent; underfoot the ground was almost wet.
He came out on a level table. It was dark, with the ferns growing up onall sides, dense growths of ferns, silent and unmoving. He came upon anatural path, an old stream bed, rough and rocky, but easy to follow.The air was thick and oppressive. Beyond the ferns he could see the sideof the next hill, a green field rising up.
Something grey was ahead. Rocks, piled-up boulders, scattered andstacked here and there. The stream bed led directly to them. Apparentlythis had been a pool of some kind, a stream emptying from it. He climbedthe first of the boulders awkwardly, feeling his way up. At the top hepaused, resting again.
As yet he had had no luck. So far he had not met any of the natives. Itwould be through them that he would find the mysterious Pipers that werestealing the men away, if such really existed. If he could find thenatives, talk to them, perhaps he could find out something. But as yethe had been unsuccessful. He looked around. The woods were very silent.A slight breeze moved through the ferns, rustling them, but that wasall. Where were the natives? Probably they had a settlement of somesort, huts, a clearing. The asteroid was small; he should be able tofind them by nightfall.
* * * * *
He started down the rocks. More rocks rose up ahead and he climbed them.Suddenly he stopped, listening. Far off, he could hear a sound, thesound of water. Was he approaching a pool of some kind? He went onagain, trying to locate the sound. He scrambled down rocks and up rocks,and all around him there was silence, except for the splashing ofdistant water. Maybe a waterfall, water in motion. A stream. If he foundthe stream he might find the natives.
The rocks ended and the stream bed began again, but this time it waswet, the bottom muddy and overgrown with moss. He was on the righttrack; not too long ago this stream had flowed, probably during therainy season. He went up on the side of the stream, pushing through theferns and vines. A golden snake slid expertly out of his path. Somethingglinted ahead, something sparkling through the ferns. Water. A pool. Hehurried, pushing the vines aside and stepping out, leaving them behind.
He was standing on the edge of a pool, a deep pool sunk in a hollow ofgrey rocks, surrounded by ferns and vines. The water was clear andbright, and in motion, flowing in a waterfall at the far end. It wasbeautiful, and he stood watching, marveling at it, the undisturbedquality of it. Untouched, it was. Just as it had always been, probably.As long as the asteroid existed. Was he the first to see it? Perhaps. Itwas so hidden, so concealed by the ferns. It gave him a strange feeling,a feeling almost of ownership. He stepped down a little toward thewater.
And it was then he noticed her.
The girl was sitting on the far edge of the pool, staring down into thewater, resting her head on one drawn-up knee. She had been bathing; hecould see that at once. Her coppery body was still wet and glisteningwith moisture, sparkling in the sun. She had not seen him. He stopped,holding his breath, watching her.
She was lovely, very lovely, with long dark hair that wound around hershoulders and arms. Her body was slim, very slender, with a supple graceto it that made him stare, accustomed as he was to various forms ofanatomy. How silent she was! Silent and unmoving, staring down at thewater. Time passed, strange, unchanging time, as he watched the girl.Time might even have ceased, with the girl sitting on the rock staringinto the water, and the rows of great ferns behind her, as rigid as ifthey had been painted there.
All at once the girl looked up. Harris shifted, suddenly conscious ofhimself as an intruder. He stepped back. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'mfrom the Garrison. I didn't mean to come poking around."
She nodded without speaking.
"You don't mind?" Harris asked presently.
"No."
So she spoke Terran! He moved a little toward her, around the side ofthe pool. "I hope you don't mind my bothering you. I won't be on theasteroid very long. This is my first day here. I just arrived fromTerra."
She smiled faintly.
"I'm a doctor. Henry Harris." He looked down at her, at the slim copperybody, gleaming in the sunlight, a faint sheen of moisture on her armsand thighs. "You might be interested in why I'm here." He paused. "Maybeyou can even help me."
She looked up a little. "Oh?"
"Would you like to help me?"
She smiled. "Yes. Of course."
"That's good. Mind if I sit down?" He looked around and found himself aflat rock. He sat down slowly, facing her. "Cigarette?"
"No."
"Well, I'll have one." He lit up, taking a deep breath. "You see, wehave a problem at the Garrison. Something has been happening to some ofthe men, and it seems to be spreading. We have to find out what causesit or we won't be able to run the Garrison."
* * * * *
He waited for a moment. She nodded slightl
y. How silent she was! Silentand unmoving. Like the ferns.
"Well, I've been able to find out a few things from them, and one veryinteresting fact stands out. They keep saying that somethingcalled--called The Pipers are responsible for their condition. They saythe Pipers taught them--" He stopped. A strange look had flitted acrossher dark, small face. "Do you know the Pipers?"
She nodded.
Acute satisfaction flooded over Harris. "You do? I was sure the nativeswould know." He stood up again. "I was sure they would, if the Pipersreally existed. Then they do exist, do they?"
"They exist."
Harris