Planter spoke: "Did you see the girl called Mara out there?"
"She was watching us," said the man. "Finally she went into the jungle."
"With no message for me?"
"No message for anybody."
"Dr. Hommerson," said Planter, "pick someone else instead of me. Here I stay."
Hommerson looked up sharply. "Until the next ship comes?"
"Here I stay," repeated Planter. "From now on."
He sought a certain jungle trail, one he had traversed before. "Mara!" he called down it.
She was not hard to catch up with, for she was not walking fast. As he came alongside, she looked at him with eyes too bright to be dry.
"You came to bid goodbye," she suggested.