For hours afterward I could think of nothing else. I sat hidden among the deep soft scales, listening. Now and then the gentle movement would cause the crevices around me to gape open, wide enough to reveal a strip of sky. I wondered if sometime I might catch sight of a space ship bolting off into the blue. The only sounds I heard were the faint muffled rumblings of the Kao-Wagwattl moving along, like gentle thunder echoing up from somewhere down in the earth. It lulled me into relaxation, yet I could not dispel the mental image of Campbell sitting there in the ship, alone, brooding over the news. And tempted, no doubt, to touch the controls and leave this planet behind him. Later I talked with him again, but we did not mention Omosla. He said he was busy with his scientific findings. I relayed to him descriptions of the Kao-Wagwattl--the "inside" story, from one who was concealed within its scales. We were back to our original assignment, now. For days and days to come, we pursued the scientific facts, comparing notes by radio. At air-cruise speed, Campbell made trips around the planet, and completed his charts and maps. He reported that the beautiful land toward which we were moving was indeed a land of promise. But he gave slower estimates of the Kao-Wagwattl's speed, and he estimated that it would take us the larger part of a year to reach our destination. However, he managed to get an inside view of the larger Benzendella tribes who dwelt there. They were truly waiting for old Tomboldo's return, and were firm in their faith that the rope of life, Kao-Wagwattl, would bring him. Such were the scientific and ethnological studies that Campbell and I were to share, by radio, in the weeks and months to come.... Now Vauna was beside me. We, like the others, were settled down for the long journey. Innocent Vauna! She was trying so hard to please me. She sat very close, whispering to me. I listened, and smiled, and tried to take my thoughts away from the image of Campbell, his honor shattered by her recent words to him about the baby--a baby with eyelashes--a baby that resembled him. If I remained silent, Vauna would tease me into talking with her. "Do my words displease you, Captain?" "Your words please me very much." "You do not look at me. You only look away. Do you want me to sit close beside you?" I drew her in my arms and held her. In silence I thought a thousand thoughts that I had brought with me across millions of miles of space. Later I said to her, "Your arms are warm. Why don't you take these fur things off your elbows, to be more comfortable?"