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The saucer students were at last beginning to feel alive again after their ducking and their exhausting race with the waves The hway near the low concrete bridge at the head of the wash, and everyone was drying out around it, which necessitated considerable co around of clothes and of the unwetted blankets and stray articles of dress from the truck

Ra clothes to Bermuda shorts, ruthlessly chopped off the tails and half the arms of the coat, replaced the ruined dicky and white tie with the green scarf of her turban, and gathered her red-gold hair in a pony tail Ann and Doc ado noticed that Ross Hunter appeared trimmer than the other etting slightly stubbly cheeks and chins, he simply still had the beard that had htened, their spirits rose and it becaht had actually happened, and that a violet and gold planet was at thisJapan, Australia, and the other islands of the half-planet-spanning Pacific Ocean

But they could see athe road not two hundred yards north, while Doc pointed out the wreckage of the beach house and the platfor Two, little more than a mile away

"Still," he said, "hurows like n, Doddsy?"

"I&039; a journal of events in waterproof ink," the Little Man retorted briskly "It&039;s open to inspection at any ties to emphasize that point "If anyone&039;s memory of events differs from mine, I&039;ll be happy tohe&039;ll initial the divergent recollection"

Wojtowicz, staring down over the Little Man&039;s shoulder, said: "Hey, Doddsy, soot of the Wanderer don&039;t look right to rammatic," the Little Man admitted "However, I did draw themfrom the life But if you want to make some memory pictures of the new planet - and initial them! - you&039;re welcome to put them in the book"

"Not ly

"You&039;ll be able to check up tonight, Wojtowicz," Doc said

"Jeeze, don&039;t re his hand to his eyes and doing a little co apart on the wide bridge-rail and staring hungrily out toward the sea&039;s rim where the Wanderer had set

"She chose hily "I believed, yet I was passed over He was drawn into the saucer"

"Neverher plump hand on his thin shoulder "Maybe it wasn&039;t the Eot the orders mixed"

"You know, that was truly weird, that saucer swooping down on us," Wojtowicz said to the others "Just one thing about it - are you sure you saw Paul pulled up into it? I don&039;t like to say this, but he could have been sucked out to sea, like almost happened to several of us"

Doc, Rama Joan, and Hunter averred they&039;d seen it with their own eyes "I think she was more interested in the cat than Paul," Rama Joan added

"Why so?" the Little Man asked "And why &039;she&039;?"

Raed "Hard to say, Mr Dodd Except she looked like a cat herself, and I didn&039;t notice any external sex organs"

"Neither did I," Doc confir for them at the time with lewd avidity"

"Do you think the saucer actually had an inertialess drive - like E E S?" Harry McHeath asked Doc

"Have to, I&039;d think, the way it was ju around In a situation like this, science fiction is our only guide On the other hand - "

Margo took advantage of everyone being engrossed in the conversation to fade back between the bushes in the direction the other women had taken earlier on their bathrooe beside the wash and cae about twenty feet above the beach

She looked around her She couldn&039;t see anyone anywhere She took out froray pistol that had fallen from the saucer It was the first chance she&039;d had to inspect it closely Keeping it concealed while she&039;d dried her clothes had been an irksoray - aluht - and smoothly strea ger-buers arid a thurip, away froht hand, was a narrow vertical strip that shone violet five-eighths of its length up, rather like a recessed therun experimentally Just beyond the end of theon the riun at the boulder and tapped the trigger Nothing happened She pressed it a little harder, then a little harder than that, and suddenly - there was no recoil, but suddenly the boulder was shooting away, and a three-foot bite of ledge with it, to fall alh some of the sand there whooshed up and flew on farther A breeze blew briefly froravel rattled down the slope

She took a gasping breath and a big s Then she grinned The violet coluun back inside her jacket, belting the latter a notch tighter A thoughtful frown replaced her grin