"Yes, I get it—You mean they are afraid."
"Of many things—other colonies to follow this—their eventual discovery—diseases! Perhaps it is partly that we cripples offend their sense of beauty—"
"Forget it, Kid, you've got more pep in one hand than any girl I ever knew had in two."
She smiled at him gratefully, before she turned away, and then her voice was still gay—"That isn't what you say to all the girls—Well, what next?"
John stood with his feet apart as if alert to danger. He combed his fingers through the already tousled mop of reddish brown hair. After a moment of silence, he said, "Do you suppose that will make a difference in their attitude toward us?"
"Perhaps not—after all, most of the trouble came with the ship. They are not angry with us—We'll just have to wait and see."
It wasn't a long wait. A larger opening in the wall allowed the sliding entrance of a small glass-like dome, containing their Earth clothes and oxygen helmets on a low bench inside.
The old scientist who had been talking to them before, appeared again on the screen. He ordered, impersonally, "Dress yourselves, lift the cover, and then strap yourselves to the seat inside. We are going to take you for a trip. The dome is to protect us from you."
"Isn't much else to do, is there?" said John hopelessly.
"Let's assume they are friendly, until they prove otherwise."