When I finally took a sip of my beer, it was already warm. I set it aside. Presently my daughter ran out onto the terrace. "Daddy, my volplas left. They said good-by and we hadn't even finished the TV show. They said they won't see me again. Did you make them leave?" "No. I didn't." She was staring at me with hot eyes. Her lower lip protruded and trembled like a pink tear drop. "Daddy, you did so." She stomped into the house, sobbing. My God! In one afternoon, I had managed to become a palace eunuch, a murderer and a liar! * * * * * Most of the afternoon went by before I heard my son enter the house. I called to him and he came out and stood before me. I got up. "Son, I can't tell you how sorry I am for what happened to you. It was my fault, not yours at all. I only hope you can forget the shock of finding out what sort of creature you had hit. I don't know why I didn't anticipate that such things would happen. It was just that I was so intent on mystifying the whole world that I...." I stopped. There wasn't anything more to say. "Are you going to make them leave the ranch?" he asked. I was aghast. "After what has happened?" "Gee, what _are_ you going to do about them, Dad?" "I've been trying to decide. I don't know what I should do that will be best for them." I looked at my watch. "Let's go back out and talk to the chief." His eyes lighted and he clapped me on the shoulder, man to man. We ran out and got into the jeep and drove back up to the valley. The late afternoon Sun glared across the landscape. We didn't say much as we wound up the valley between the darkening trees. I was filled more and more with the unease that had seized me as I watched the three volplas leave my terrace and climb smoothly and purposefully into the east. We got out at the chief's camp and there were no volplas around. The fire had burned down to a smolder. I called in the volpla language, but there was no answer. We went from camp to camp and found dead fires. We climbed to their tree houses and found them empty. I was sick and scared. I called endlessly till I was hoarse. At last, in the darkness, my son put a hand on my arm. "What are you going to do, Dad?" Standing there in those terribly silent woods, I trembled. "I'll have to call the police and the newspapers and warn everybody." "Where do you suppose they've gone?" I looked to the east where the stars, rising out of the great pass in the mountains, glimmered like a deep bowl of fireflies. "The last three I saw were headed that way." * * * * * We had been gone from the house for hours. When we stepped out onto the lighted terrace, I saw the shadow of a helicopter down on the strip. Then I saw Guy sitting near me in a chair. He was holding his head in his hands.