"So it will match the apparent motions of the moons."
Karen walked perhaps twenty steps in silence, then stopped dead.
"Guthrie! Do you really mean we can see it?"
"Sure. I did it a bit roughly, but I'm hoping for under two thousand miles and two or three periods a night. Even when it isn't catching any sunlight, that beacon ought to show. Dimmer than Yiv, maybe, but moving and easy to spot."
With the flashlight, making their way through the woods took less time. They were half-way across a grassy plain when Polf exclaimed and pointed to the sky. Guthrie whooped.
"There's a moon for tonight!" he yelled. "And every night, for quite some time, until the pulls of the real ones spoil its orbit."
He felt so good that he threw an arm about Karen's waist. It must have felt good to her, too, for instead of pulling away, she leaned closer.
"They'll wait now, won't they?" she asked. "I mean, unless there's no moon.... Wait till George finds out what you've done for him!"
"I don't know why I'm so good to him when I like the Skirkhi better," said Guthrie. "Of course, we can't explain until I think up a suitably rotten excuse, or it would ruin my reputation with them!"
They stood motionless for a few minutes, watching the bright light creep perceptibly along its path in the heavens.