"What's just right?" "Play along with me," I urged. "Follow my cue." "Play along--" "An old Earth expression. We've got to play up to them, put on an act." Before she could protest or cry out I swept her into my arms. I ran my hands through her hair, raised her chin, and kissed her--very firmly and determinedly for an instant. "This is part of the act," I whispered. Being a woman of Tragor, she could hardly have believed that my impulsiveness had been prompted solely by a desperate human need for companionship in a moment of shared danger. She must have known it went deeper than that, and she would have been right. A giddiness swept me like a gusty hurricane wind on a tidal estuary bright with a thousand pulsating tropical blooms. I released her suddenly, and she leapt back, her eyes startled and accusing. "You're either a madman or a sick child!" she whispered. "We'll talk about it later," I said. "Now is not the time." "I feel sorry for you." "Later." The clearing quieted down, and there was silence for a moment. Then out of the forest they came, walking three abreast. Geipgos, the old tribal chieftain, and his son Slagoon, and the warriors with their rippling muscles glinting in the pollen-scented dusk, and their spears held high in a cautious withholding of wrath. You couldn't call it a greeting. They were still shaken with anger, still ready to kill. I went forward to meet them, with Kallatah in the crook of my arm. I'd talked and bargained and haggled with them a dozen times, but now I was seeing them for the first time through her eyes. I have a curious gift of empathy. I could share her awe and admiration, and the stunned incredulity which must have made her doubt the evidence of her eyes. The natives of Dracona are physically comely and well-proportioned, and they carry themselves with such an air of easy grace that you have to look twice to realize that they are not entirely like ourselves. They have three eyes, but the extra one is so smoothly lidded that when it remains shut you scarcely notice it. Their three extra, slightly attenuated arms are not obtrusive, for they carry them pressed closely to their sides. And the green sheen of their skins looks more bronze than green in the forest gloom, and is hence far less startling than might be supposed. They had such keen, discerning eyes, and mobile features that when they smiled in friendly greeting it was hard to think of them as primitives at all. * * * * * They were not smiling now. I tightened my hold on Kallatah's wrist, and looked Geipgos straight in the eye--the big forehead eye which opened slowly to glow with fierce reproach and scorn. "Mukith Mani-Bumini!" I said. That translated out as: "I would know the reason for your displeasure, old friend!"