To wait, helplessly, eleven light-years away might create more tenseness than being right on the scene. Yet no voice came through the ship's speaker, either from Earth or from the observer's ship. Perhaps McGinnis, forgetting his eighty years, wished now he were at Eden instead of Cal. Perhaps, mindful of his years, he didn't. He made no comment. Tom dropped the ship lower and lower, each time pausing for an air sample. Each time they scanned the valley where the village of Appletree should be. There was no change. Now the unlikely idea of a superimposed mirage was dispelled. The disappearance of the colony was no trick of vision. The ship hovered, at the last, not more than fifty feet from the ground. "Let's set her down, Tom," Cal said quietly. Tom shrugged, as if that were the only thing left to do. "You're the E," he said. His glance at Louie showed he was placing the responsibility not so much to avoid consequences for himself, nor so much to assure they were willing to follow an E's orders without question, as to remind Louie that there was, after all, an E with them. And if he were willing to face this unknown, they could hardly do less themselves. But Louie's eyes were fixed in unblinking stare upon the ground below them. He was frozen and unheeding. The actual landing was so flawless that Cal, involuntarily, glanced out of the port to confirm that they were no longer hovering. "Might as well open up," he said. "Nothing has happened to us, so far." Norton pushed a button. The exit hatch slipped open and the ramp unfolded and slid down to touch ground. Cal, flanked by Tom and Frank, looked through the opening into the woods beyond. And while they looked, a man came from behind the screening protection of some shrubbery. He was followed by two other men. All of them were completely naked. "You three stay inside the ship until I signal you to come out," Cal instructed. "If anything unusual happens to me, stand off from the planet until help can come from Earth. Don't be foolish and try to help me." "You're the E," Tom repeated. When a man is outside his own knowledge, heroics might do more harm than good. Cal stepped through the exit and walked slowly down the ramp. The three colonists seemed in no panic. They walked toward him, also slowly, obviously in attempt at dignified control. Yet their faces were breaking into broad grins of relief and welcome. Cal stepped off the ramp, took a step toward them, then it happened. He heard breathless grunts of surprise and pain behind him. He whirled around. The three crewmen were lying awkwardly on the ground. There was no ship. The three crewmen were completely naked. Cal felt the stirring of a breeze, and looked down quickly at his own body. He also was nude. He turned back to face the colonists. They had stopped in front of him. Their joyous grins had been replaced by grimaces of despair.