tube, not having inserted the adjutage into his helmet-opening to be sterilized first. Being septic saved a lot of time.

He finished the squeeze-tube beans and was thirsty. Down at the base of his hill was a little stream. Hartford thoughtfully peeled off his safety-suit. Dressed only in his shorts, shirtless, barefoot and tender, he made his way down to the water.

It was delicious.

Did bacteria impart that brisk taste? Hartford wondered. So far committed to contamination that nothing mattered, he shed his shorts and dived into the stream. It was chilly, delightful. He returned to shore and lay on the grass for the sun to toast him dry. He began to relax.... The girl giggled.

Hartford snatched up his shorts and pulled them on. It was Takeko. She was afoot, wearing the costume he'd last seen her with; but she had strapped on her back a leather wallet. A blabrigar sat on Takeko's shoulder. She spoke to it, repeating her message four times and listening to the bird repeat once. Then she shooed the scarlet bird away, to carry north the message that Hartford had been found.

"I laugh. Excuse me," she said. "But you funny." Takeko patted her head. Hartford understood. Shaved by the Decontamination Squad, he was bald and eyebrowless, entirely lacking in body hair. He smiled. "Hai."

"Your skin is like the hide of a giraffu," she said.

Hartford looked down at his freckled arm. True, the pattern of brown against pink was very like the reticulations of a camelopard. "Where did you learn to speak Standard, Takeko?"

"Pia-san talked to my cousin, and I listened," she said. "Kansannamura was my home. Pia often visited us." Hartford, who after Nasty Nef was the man most responsible for the burning of Takeko's village, was silent. "When your jeepu-kuruma hit my giraffu, I think you are Renkei," the Kansan girl said. "Renkei is my cousin. He go to see what can be done."

"Renkei is dead," Hartford told her.

"Iie!" Takeko pressed her hands against her face. "You strangers are quick to kill, to burn, to sweep away."

"I did not wish him harmed," Hartford said.

"You pink folk will not be happy until all our people are dead and under the ground," Takeko moaned. "You will not be pleased until you can march 

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