"Lot of funny animals, but none of them were very dangerous. No reptilian life; all of it mammalian, but a funny kind of mammalian if you know what I mean." * * * * * Blake said, "I don't want to know what you mean. Get to the natives and the earrings." I said, "But of course with animals like that, you never _know_ whether they're dangerous until you've been around them for a while. You can't judge by size or looks. Like if you'd never seen a snake, you'd never guess that a little coral snake was dangerous, would you? And a Martian zeezee looks for all the world like an overgrown guinea-pig. But without a gun--or with one, for that matter--I'd rather face a grizzly bear or a--" "The earrings," said Blake. "You were talking about earrings." I said, "Oh, yes; earrings. Well, the natives wore them--for now, I'll put it that way, to make it easier to tell. One earring apiece, even though they had two ears. Gave them a sort of lopsided look, because they were pretty fair-sized earrings--like hoops of plain gold, two or three inches in diameter. "Anyway, the tribe we landed near wore them that way. We could see the village--a very primitive sort of place made of mud huts--from where we landed. We had a council of war and decided that three of us would stay in the ship and the other three go to the village. Lecky, the biologist, and Art Willis and I with guns. We didn't know what we might run into, see? And Lecky was chosen because he was pretty much of a linguist. He had a flair for languages and could talk them almost as soon as he heard them. * * * * * "They'd heard us land and a bunch of them--about forty, I guess--met us half-way between the ship and the village. And they were friendly. Funny people. Quiet and dignified and acting not at all like you'd expect savages to act toward people landing out of the sky. You know how most primitives react--either they practically worship you or else they try to kill you. "We went to the village with them--and there were about forty more of them there; they'd split forces just as we did, for the reception committee. Another sign of intelligence. They recognized Lecky as leader, and started jabbering to him in a lingo that sounded more like a pig grunting than a man talking. And pretty soon Lecky was making an experimental grunt or two in return. "Everything seemed on the up and up, and no danger. And they weren't paying much attention to Art and me, so we decided to wander off for a stroll around outside of the village to see what the country in general was like and whether there were any dangerous beasties or what-not. We didn't see any animals, but we did see another native. He acted different from the others--very different. He threw a spear at us and then ran. And it was Art who noticed that this native didn't wear an earring.