"We?" he looked back at her.

"Yes. There are twenty-seven of us. We were on our way to Jupiter, too, only we were going to be wives for the colonists."

"I remember," he exclaimed. "Didn't the Jupiter Food-growers Association enlist you girls to go to the colonies?"

She nodded her head. "Only twenty-seven of us came through the crash."

"Everybody thought your space ship hit a meteor," he said.

"We hit this asteroid."

"But that was three years ago."

"Has it been that long? We lost track of time." She didn't take her eyes off him, not for a second. Such attention made him acutely self conscious. She said, "I'm Ann. Ann Clotilde. I was hunting when I saw your space ship. You had been thrown clear. You were lying all in a heap. I thought you were dead." She stooped, picked up a spear.

"Do you feel strong enough to hike back to our camp? It's only about four miles," she said.

"I think so," he said.