"Look at that," growled Red Brace. "We come across practically half the universe to reach this place, and all we get is a cockeyed glance out of the corner of their eyes."
"Well, you aren't exactly a pretty sight," Harvey said.
But it was strange, he thought—this indifference, this lack of curiosity. Here, for the first time in two years, were newcomers from distant Earth. Didn't they want to hear the news, hear about the blight, ask questions about relatives and friends? Could anybody be that uninterested?
At the crest of the rise, the guides paused, and the settlers leaned against their carts or sat on the ground to rest. In the valley below were little clumps of houses, long, low buildings, arranged in groups of three and four, with a hundred yards or so between each group. Off to the right, a hill, steep and lofty, stood alone in the rolling plain. Almost at the summit, in a cleft in the rock, was a building shaped like a semicircle, topped with a slim spire. Its walls seemed mostly windows. They glinted golden in the warm light.
"And who lives up there, I wonder," said Red Brace.
"I could make a guess," Harvey said.
"Mr. Big. A nice, cozy spot where he can sit all day and spit down everybody else's throat."