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Across the room, the fox-man stirred. "I got it Why don't
we take him along?"
"Ya mean, out to space?" The bear-man was startled. Then
he shook his head. "That's probably illegal."
"Illegal by whose standards?" chimed in Dooldn. "Only the
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usurping hyena-men." He shrugged. "Nobody'11 notice an ex-
tra ape among so many. An' he can just say they musta lost
his papers."
It was an awed hippopotamus-man who turned and stared
at the human being. "Hey, Modiunn, what do you think?
Like to go?"
What interested Modyun in what was happening was their
willingness to conspire on his behalf. Amazingly, that one
thought which he had presented, the concept of usurpation,
had eroded their loyalty. First Roozb's and Dooldn's, and
now, apparently, with the passage of time, Narrl and Ich-
dohz had also been what was the word? corrupted. For
just a few moments the veil had been torn aside. Still not
knowing the real truth, they had responded to the lesser rev-
elation with anger and a deterioration of their previous inno-/
cence and purity of purpose.
His thought went back to his fellow criminal, the rat-man,
who had been impelled to steal when he learned that the hy-
ena leaders were driven that extra hundred yards to their
front doors. A privilege which he resented.
It really doesn't take much, Modyun thought
The perfect balance that man had left, when he retreated
behind the barrier, had been disturbed by the conquering
Nunuli. Too bad. Maybe something should be done about
that
He grew aware that all four pairs of bright eyes were still
eagerly fixed on him, waiting his response. It reminded him
of something else he should do first
"I'll be going out at dawn," he said. "But I should be back
here by nine or nine thirty. Would that be too late?"
They assured him earnestly that it wouldn't.
What he did at dawn was drive out to where Eket had
brought him nearly a month ago and where he had met
Soodleel. He had a mental picture of the terrain and of a
possible route over which the car could take him across the
roadless country. As he had anticipated, the robot auto
obeyed his human name.
And so, presently, Modyun stood on the hill overlooking
what had been the valley where the thousand had dwelt in
then: paradise. Everything was gone: the gardens, the inter-
linked canals and pools, the golden homes and grounds which
had formed a circular core about a mile in diameter. Also
missing was the outer fringe of dwellings where the insect
and animal attendants of the human beings had had their
homes.
Where the little city had been, with its remnant of the hu-
man race, was a gouged-out hole three miles long, two miles
wide, and half a mile deep.
If he were to go out into space, maybe in one of the days
ahead he could have a talk about all this with a member of
that committee ...
Abruptly it seemed like something that, in fact, ought to be
done.
XV
MODYUN WAS not at first concerned with locating a per-
manent room for himself. After separating from his four
friends they had their assigned quarters to go to he saun-
tered along a corridor and found himself presently at a gate
overlooking a huge open space.
His eyes swiftly measured the place to be well over a kilom-
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eter in diameter and at least a hundred meters high. Every-
where he looked were trees, and a vista of grassland, and of
course thousands of animal people enjoying the pleasant out-
door effect. It seemed like an ideal place to spend his first
few hours aboard. Modyun stepped forward to go through
the gate and found it locked.
An animal-woman came forward. She was neatly dressed,
and had the appearance of being well, of all things an
ape. She looked up at him from her height of seven feet three
inches to his eight, and said, "These compounds are rationed,
sir. With so many people aboard, the open spaces have to be
used in stagger fashion. If you give me your name and room
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