Its body, long and thick, was dwarfed by the tremendous arms. Its feet were large, toeless, and flat; its legs joined smoothly to the trunk about halfway up. It wore clothing of a sort, which surprised Calvin Full, perhaps more than anything else about the being. There was a kind of short sleeveless jacket of amber color caught at the front by a long silver bar, and a white skirt worn under the legs, reaching from just below the hip joints to the bottom of the torso.
Its companions were almost identical with it, except for clothing of different hues and varying cut.
The thing in the middle now opened its mouth and made a noise that reminded Full of an off-key clarinet.
"Gpwk?" it said, with a rising inflection. "Hummr gpwk?"
Abruptly it came forward, its motions flowing and yet a bit jerky, its long legs carrying it rhythmically, but with a hint of gawkiness; Calvin thought of a galloping giraffe he and his wife had seen in a travelogue some nights before. It towered over them, bending at the hip joints.
"Steady, dear," he said.
"I'm all right," his wife said shakily, seeming just on the verge of screaming.
"Wish I could say the same," said Adam Pierce, the Negro boy. "What a specimen!"
"Look like anything to you?" asked Watkins.
"Hell, no. Unless it's something from Mars."