belt on the floor at his feet when he sat down . Then he began to curse Leonard Kellogg in four or five languages .
"Well , I agree , in principle ; why in particular , though ? ”
"You know what that son of a Khooghra's doing ?" Gerd asked . “ He and that— ” He used a couple of Sheshan words , viler than anything in Lingua Terra . " —that quack head- shrinker , Mallin , are preparing a report , accusing you and Ben Rainsford of perpetrating a deliberate scientific hoax . You taught the Fuzzies some tricks ; you and Rainsford , be- tween you , made those artifacts yourselves and the two of you are conspiring to foist the Fuzzies off as sapient beings . Jack, if it weren't so goddamn stinking contemptible , it would be the biggest joke in a century !"
"I take it they wanted you to sign this report , too ?"
"Yes, and I told Kellogg he could- " What Kellogg could do , it seemed , was both appalling and physiologically im- possible . He cursed again , and then lit a cigarette and got hold of himself . " Here's what happened . Kellogg and I went up that stream , about twenty miles down Cold Creek , the one you've been working on , and up onto the high flat t o a spring and a stream that flows down i n the opposite direction . Know where I mean ? Well , we found where some Fuzzies had been camping , among a lot o f fallen timber . And we found a little grave, where the Fuzzies had buried one of their people . "
He should have expected something like that , and yet i t startled him . " You mean , they bury their dead ? What was the grave like ? "
" A little stone cairn , about a foot and a half by three , a foot high . Kellogg said i t was just a big toilet pit , but I was sure o f what i t was . I opened i t . Stones under the cairn , and then filled - i n earth , and then a dead Fuzzy wrapped i n grass . A female
she'd been mangled b y something , maybe a bush - goblin . And get this , Jack
they'd buried her prawn- stick with her . "
" They bury their dead ! What was Kellogg doing , while you were opening the grave ? "
" Dithering around , having ants . I'd been taking snaps of the grave , and I was burbling away like an ass about how important this was and how i t was positive proof of sapience , and he was insisting that we get back t o camp a t once . He called the other jeep and told Mallin t o get t o camp im- mediately , and Mallin and Ruth and Juan were there when
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