to. "Are they still broadcasting, Soriki?"

The com-tech had stripped the earphones from his head and was rubbing
one ear. "Are they!" he exploded. "I'd think you could hear them clear
over there, sir!"

And they could. The gabble-gabble which bore no resemblance to any
language Terra knew boiled out of the phones.

"Someone's excited," Lablet commented in his usual mild tone.

"Maybe they've discovered us." Hobart's hand went to the weapon at his
belt. "We must make peaceful contact--if we can."

Lablet took off his helmet and ran his fingers through the scrappy
ginger-and-gray fringe receding from his forehead. "Yes--contact will
be necessary--" he said thoughtfully.

Well, he was supposed to be their expert on that. Raf watched the
older man with something akin to amusement. The pilot had a suspicion
that none of the other three, Lablet included, was in any great hurry
to push through contact with unknown aliens. It was a case of dancing
along on shore before having to plunge into the chill of autumn sea
waves. Terrans had explored their own solar system, and they had
speculated learnedly for generations on the problem of intelligent
alien life. There had been all kinds of reports by experts and
would-be experts. But the stark fact remained that heretofore mankind
as born on the third planet of Sol had _not_ encountered intelligent
alien life. And just how far did speculations, reports, and arguments
go when one was faced with the problem to be solved practically--and