"Men wouldn't have you. I told you, they're superstitious about outworlders." "Then it's failure! Your money and my doctorate go down the drain." "You're young, you'll get your doctorate another place," the old man said. "You've tried hard, and I'll tell Belconti that." His voice was placating, but Cole thought he saw a wary glint in the hard gray eyes. Cole shrugged. "I suppose I'll settle in and wait for _Gorbals_. But I've had pleasanter vacations." He turned his back and scanned the shelves ostentatiously for a book. Bidgrass left the room quietly. It was a boring evening. Pia was not in the garden. Cole looked at the barrier and the incredible cliff of Lundy Forest. He would like to get into that forest, just once. Hundred and fifty days before _Gorbals_ ... _why_ had they ever sent for him? They seemed to be conspiring to cheat him of his doctorate. They had, too.... Finally he slept. * * * * * He woke to a distant siren wail and doors slamming and feet scraping in the main house. Dressing in haste, he noted a red glow in the sky to southward and heard a booming noise. In the hall outside his room he met Pia, face white and eyes enormous. "Stomper attack!" she cried. "Come quickly, you must hide in the basement with us!" He followed her into the main house and downstairs to where Mrs. Vignoli was herding a crowd of the giant domestics down a doored staircase. The giant women were tossing their heads nervously. Several were naked and one was tearing off her dress. Cole drew back. "I'm an ecologist, I want to see," he said. "Stompers are data." He pushed her gently toward the women and walked out on the front veranda. From southward came an incredibly rich and powerful chord of organ music, booming and swelling, impossibly sustained. Old Hawkins danced in the driveway in grotesque pointed leaps, shrieking "Hoosa maida! Hoosa maida!" Overhead the moons Cairdween, Morwenna and Annis of the blue shadows were arranged in a perfect isosceles triangle, narrow base parallel to the horizon. It stirred something in Cole, but the swelling music unhinged his thought. With a twinge of panic he turned, to find Pia at his elbow. "They're after me, after us," she cried against the music. "I must see. You go find shelter, Pia." "With you I feel less alone now," she said. "One can't really hide, anyway. Come to the watch tower and you'll see." He followed her through the house and up two flights to the roof of the tower on the southeast corner. As they stepped into the night air, the great organ sound enwrapped them, and Cole saw the southern sky ablaze, with flyers swooping and black motes hurtling through the glare. Interwoven pencils of ion-flame flickered in the verging darkness and the ripping sound of heavy blasters came faintly through the music.