The monochrome view, transformed from infra
red, rotated as the snooper circled and changed course. The other
screen showed the camp receding and the area around it widening as
its snooper gained altitude.
"It's not a big party," Gofredo was saying. "I can't see--Oh,
yes I can. Only two of them."
The humanoid figures, one larger than the other, were moving
cautiously across the fields, crouching low. The snooper went down
toward them, and then he recognized them. The man and woman whom
the blue-robed villager had tried to shove out of the queue, that
afternoon. Gofredo recognized them, too.
"Your friends, Mark. Harry," he told his subordinate, "go out and
pass the word around. Only two, and we think they're friendly. Keep
everybody out of sight; we don't want to scare them away."
The snooper followed closely behind them. The man was no longer
wearing his apron; the woman's tunic was even more tattered and
soiled. She was leading him by the hand. Now and then, she would
stop and turn her head to the rear. The snooper over the mound
showed nothing but half a dozen fire-watchers dozing by their fires.
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