Exile

or dead, had been discovered--had accordingly beenflown here.

  With a clanging of bells, the little convoy of ground cars drew up infront of the hospital. A way was made through the chittering crowdaround the entrance. Within a few minutes, Kinton found himself lookingdown at a pallet upon which lay another Terran.

  A man! he thought, then curled a lip wrily at the sudden, unexpectedpang of disappointment. Well, he hadn't realized until then what he wasreally hoping for!

  * * * * *

  The spaceman had been cleaned up and bandaged by the native medicos.Kinton saw that his left thigh was probably broken. Other dressingssuggested cracked ribs and lacerations on the head and shoulders. Theman was dark-haired but pale of skin, with a jutting chin and a nosethat had been flattened in some earlier mishap. The flaring set of hisears somehow emphasized an overall leanness. Even in sleep, his mouthwas thin and hard.

  "Thrown across the controls after his belt broke loose?" Kinton guessed.

  "I bow to your wisdom, George," said the plump Tepoktan doctor whoappeared to be in charge.

  Kinton could not remember him, but everyone on the planet addressed theTerran by the sound they fondly thought to be his first name.

  "This is Doctor Chuxolkhee," murmured Klaft.

  Kinton made the accepted gesture of greeting with one hand and said,"You seem to have treated him very expertly."

  Chuxolkhee ruffled the scales around his neck with pleasure.

  "I have studied Terran physiology," he admitted complacently. "From yourrecords and drawings, of course, George, for I have not yet had the goodfortune to visit you."

  "We must arrange a visit soon," said Kinton. "Klaft will--"

  He broke off at the sound from the patient.

  "A Terran!" mumbled the injured man.

  He shook his head dazedly, tried to sit up, and subsided with a groan.

  _Why, he looked scared when he saw me_, thought Kinton.

  "You're all right now," he said soothingly. "It's all over and you're ingood hands. I gather there were no other survivors of the crash?"

  The man stared curiously. Kinton realized that his own languagesputtered clumsily from his lips after ten years. He tried again.

  "My name is George Kinton. I don't blame you if I'm hard to understand.You see, I've been here ten years without ever having another Terran tospeak to."

  The spaceman considered that for a few breaths, then seemed to relax.

  "Al Birken," he introduced himself laconically. "Ten years?"

  "A little over," confirmed Kinton. "It's extremely unusual that anythinggets through to the surface, let alone a spaceship. What happened toyou?"

  * * * * *

  Birken's stare was suspicious.

  "Then you ain't heard about the new colonies? Naw--you musta come herewhen all the planets were open."

  "We had a small settlement on the second planet," Kinton told him. "Youmean there are new Terran colonies?"

  "Yeah. Jet-hoppers spreadin' all over the other five. None of theland-hungry poops figured a way to set down here, though, or they'd becreepin' around this planet too."

  "How did you happen to do it? Run out of fuel?"

  The other eyed him for a few seconds before dropping his gaze. Kintonwas struck with sudden doubt. The outposts of civilization were followedby less desirable developments as a general rule--prisons, for instance.He resolved to be wary of the visitor.

  "Ya might say I was explorin'," Birken replied at last. "That's why Icome alone. Didn't want nobody else hurt if I didn't make it. Say, howbad am I banged up?"

  Kinton realized guiltily that the man should be resting. He had losttrack of the moments he had wasted in talk while the others with himstood attentively about.

  He questioned the doctor briefly and relayed the information thatBirken's leg was broken but that the other injuries were not serious.

  "They'll fix you up," he assured the spaceman. "They're quite good atit, even if the sight of one does make you think a little of an iguana.Rest up, now; and I'll come back again when you're feeling better."

  For the next three weeks, Kinton flew back and forth from his own townnearly every day. He felt that he should not neglect the few meetingswhich were the only way he could repay the Tepoktans for all they didfor him. On the other hand, the chance to see and talk with one of hisown kind drew him like a magnet to the hospital.

  The doctors operated upon Birken's leg, inserting a metal rod inside thebone by a method they had known before Kinton described it. The newarrival expected to be able to walk, with care, almost any day; althoughthe pin would have to be removed after the bone had healed. Meanwhile,Birken seemed eager to learn all Kinton could tell him about the planet,Tepokt.

  About himself, he was remarkably reticent. Kinton worried about this.

  "I think we should not expect too much of this Terran," he warned Klaftuneasily. "You, too, have citizens who do not always obey, your laws,who sometimes ... that is--"

  "Who are born to die under the axe, as we say," interrupted Klaft, as ifto ease the concern plain on Kinton's face. "In other words, criminals.You suspect this Albirken is such a one, George?"

  "It is not impossible," admitted Kinton unhappily. "He will tell melittle about himself. It may be that he was caught in Tepokt's gravitywhile fleeing from justice."

  To himself, he wished he had not told Birken about the spaceship. Hedidn't think the man exactly believed his explanation of why there wasno use taking off in it.

  * * * * *

  Yet he continued to spend as much time as he could visiting the otherman. Then, as his helicopter landed at the city airport one gray dawn,the news reached him.

  "The other Terran has gone," Klaft reported, turning from thebreathless messenger as Kinton followed him from the machine.

  "Gone? Where did they take him?"

  Klaft looked uneasy, embarrassed. Kinton repeated his question,wondering about the group of armed police on hand.

  "In the night," Klaft hissed and clucked, "when none would think towatch him, they tell me ... and quite rightly, I think--"

  "Get on with it, Klaft! Please!"

  "In the night, then, Albirken left the chamber in which he lay. He canwalk some now, you know, because of Dr. Chuxolkhee's metal pin. He--hestole a ground car and is gone."

  "He did?" Kinton had an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is itknown where he went? I mean ... he has been curious to see some ofTepokt. Perhaps--"

  He stopped, his own words braying in his ears. Klaft was clicking twoclaws together, a sign of emphatic disagreement.

  "Albirken," he said, "was soon followed by three police constables inanother vehicle. They found him heading in the direction of our town."

  "Why did he say he was traveling that way?" asked Kinton, thinking tohimself of the spaceship! Was the man crazy?

  "He did not say," answered Klaft expressionlessly. "Taking them bysurprise, he killed two of the constables and injured the third beforefleeing with one of their spears."

  "_What?_"

  Kinton felt his eyes bulging with dismay.

  "Yes, for they carried only the short spears of their authority, notexpecting to need fire weapons."

  * * * * *

  Kinton looked from him to the messenger, noticing for the first timethat the latter was an under-officer of police. He shook his headdistractedly. It appeared that his suspicions concerning Birken had beenonly too accurate.

  Why was it one like him who got through? he asked himself in silentanguish. After ten years. The Tepoktans had been thinking well ofTerrans, but now--

  He did not worry about his own position. That was well enoughestablished, whether or not he could again hold up his head before thepurple-scaled people who had been so generous to him.

  Even if they had been aroused to a rage by the killing, Kinton toldhimself, he would not have been concerned about himself. H
e had reacheda fairly ripe age for a spaceman. In fact, he had already enjoyed adecade of borrowed time.

  But they were more civilized than that wanton murderer, he realized.

  He straightened up, forcing back his early-morning weariness.

  "We must get into the air immediately," he told Klaft. "Perhaps we maysee him before he reaches--"

  He broke off at the word "spaceship" but he noticed a reservedexpression on Klaft's pointed face. His aide had probably reached aconclusion similar to his own.

  They climbed back into the cabin and Klaft gave brisk orders to the leanyoung pilot. A moment later, Kinton saw the ground outside drop away.

  Only upon turning