"They've ducked behind those rocks now," she said as he clambered up beside her; "but they won't stay there long. They're curious, and I think some of them remember the time we were here before."
"Are they dangerous?" he inquired, patting his holstered set of heavy-duty Reaper guns.
"No," said Peer. "They look sort of awful, but you mustn't shoot them! If they get inside of thirty feet I'll hit them in the stomach with a stunner. They grunt then and run. Santis said that was the right way to teach them not to get too nosey."
They waited a moment in silence, scanning the rocks.
Then Channok started violently.
"Holy !!**?** Satellites!" he swore, his hair bristling.
A big, dead-white shape had popped up springily on a rock about fifty feet away, stared at him for an instant out of eyes like grey glass-platters, and popped down out of sight again. Awful was right!
"Aha!" crew-member Peer gloated, grinning. "You shouldn't have said that! Tonight you've got to let me soap out your mouth!"
A light dawned gradually.
"You did it on purpose!" he accused her. "You knew I'd say something like that the first time I saw one!"