“And they must have been the winners, too,” observed Cully. “Not too pleasant to think about.”
All three started at a shout, and Dard swung his stun rifle around at the entrance of that tragic barn. What if"they” were returning? Then he forced imagination under control. This horror had occurred years ago-its perpetrators were long since dead. But had they left descendants- with the same characteristics?
Kimber came into the dome. “What’re you doing in here?” he wanted to know. “We’ve been watching you from the sled. What-what in blue blazes is this?”
“Warning left by some very nasty people,” Dard spoke up. “This farm was raided and whoever did it left the animals penned up to starve to death!”
Kimber waned slowly along that pitiful line of hones. His face was very sober indeed.
“It’s been a long time since this happened.” It appeared to Dard that the pilot was reassuring himself by that statement.
“Yeah,” Harmon agreed. “A good long time. And they ain’t bin back since. Guess we can move down here and take over, Sire. This was a good farm once, no reason why it can’t be one agin.”
5: WAR RUIN
FOR THE NEXT five days they were well occupied. An extensive exploration of the inner valley, on foot and in the air, revealed no other evidences of the former civilization. And the Terrans decided against inhabiting the farm. About those domes there dung the shreds of ancient fear and disaster, and Dard was not the only one to feel uneasy within their walls.
The tree of golden apples was one of their best finds. The hamsters relished the fruit and, so encouraged, the humans raided along with the valley’s furred and feathered inhabitants, because the globes were as good as they looked and smelled-though their intoxicating effect did not hold with the Terrans. The grain also proved to be useful, and Harmon took the risk of rousing one of the two heifer calves, carried in the ship, and feeding it in the forsaken fields where it lived and grew fat.