Kaiser pushed the last of his meal--which he had been eating with his
fingers--into his mouth, crumpled the tape, wiped the grease from his
hands with it and dropped it to the floor.
He pondered mildly, as he packed his equipment, why he was disregarding
the captain's message. For some reason, it seemed too trivial for
serious consideration. He placated his slightly uneasy conscience only
to the extent of packing the communicator in with his other equipment.
It was a self-contained unit and he'd be able to receive messages from
the ship on his trip.
* * * * *
The tracks of his earlier journey had been erased by the soft rain, and
when Kaiser reached the river, he found that he had not returned to
the village he had visited the day before. However, there were other
seal-people here.
And they were almost human!
The resemblance was still not so much in their physical makeup--that
was little changed from the first he had found--as in their obviously
greater intelligence.
This was mainly noticeable in their facile expressions as they talked.
Kaiser was even certain that he read smiles on their faces when he
slipped on a particularly slick mud patch as he hurried toward them.
Where the members of the first tribes had all looked almost exactly
alike, these had very marked individual characteristics. Also, these
had no odor--only a mild, rather pleasing scent. When they came to meet
him, Kaiser could detect distinct syllabism in their pipings.
Most of the natives returned to the river after the first ten minutes
of curious inspection, but two stayed behind as Kaiser set up his tent.
One was a female.
They made small noises while he went about his work. After a time, he
understood that they were trying to give names to his paraphernalia. He
tried saying "tent" and "wire" and "tarp" as he handled each object,
but their piping voices could not repeat the words. Kaiser amused
himself by trying to imitate their sounds for the articles. He was
fairly successful. He was certain that he could soon learn enough to
carry on a limited conversation.
The male became bored after a time and left, but the girl stayed until
Kaiser finished. She motioned to him then to follow. When they reached
the river bank, he saw that she wanted him to go into the water.
* * * * *
Before he had time to decide, Kaiser heard the small bell of the
communicator from the tent behind him. He stood undecided for a moment,
then returned and read the message on the tape: