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leopards are dead women,’ was what I came out with, talking in a funny bright voice. ‘You know, Shadow People. She says that’s why their voices sound like that and their songs are so sad sad. Of course it’s crap, like everything she says. I mean …’
    ‘What are you on about, John, you bloody idiot? You did for it, look! All by yourself! Tom’s neck, you did for it all by yourself .’
    I was shaking all over. I couldn’t have been shaking any more, I reckon, if I’d just spent an hour wandering around naked on Snowy Dark.
    ‘I’ll tell you a funny thing,’ I said, ‘when we saw those woollybucks up there on the snow, I thought for a moment they were a Landing Veekle from Earth. Hah! That was pretty dumb of me, wasn’t it?’
    Gerry laughed.
    ‘Tom’s dick, John! You just killed a leopard !’
    ‘But I suppose one waking someone will come, won’t they? They say the starship was damaged when Angela and Michael chased after it in their Police Veekle and tried to stop it. They say it leaked. But even if the starship broke on the way back, and even if the Three Companions died, the people on Earth would find it sooner or later, wouldn’t they? I mean it had a Computer, didn’t it, and a Rayed Yo? Okay it’s two hundred wombtimes ago now that they left Eden. But think how long it must take to build a new starship. I mean it takes old Jeffo half a wombtime just to build one lousy log boat to fish with out on Greatpool.’
    Gerry took my shoulders and shook me.
    ‘Gela’s tits, John, will you stop talking about bloody sky-boats! You’ve killed a leopard! All by yourself! With a kid’s spear!’
    It was weird weird. The leopard was still twitching in front of me, I was covered with its black blood, and I was shaking shaking all over. But tears came into my eyes as I thought about the Three Companions, who left Tommy and Angela on Eden to try and get back to Earth: Dixon, who had the idea to steal the starship, and Mehmet, who Angela liked best because he was kind, and gentle Michael, who named the animals and plants. I wished I knew just what happened to them when they set off back across sky to Earth in their leaky sky-boat.
    And I wished we knew how long it would be before someone came for us from Earth.

2

     

Tina Spiketree
     
    John was interesting . I mean he looked nice, and I fancied him in that way, but what fascinated me most was the way he behaved. All that hunting trip he was trying to be different, trying not to be the same as all the other newhair guys. He went right up that icy ridge. He annoyed Old Roger and David by questioning the True Story. He stayed still and quiet while Gerry was trying to get laughs with his cold feet. Yes, and I’d given him that oyster, and he’d been pleased, but he didn’t make a thing out of it like others boys would. He didn’t make a big thing about how he and I were going to have a slip. And now, while the rest of us were hunting bucks, he’d done for a leopard all by himself, which no one ever did, not unless they were cornered and had no choice. And his cousin Gerry was telling everyone that John did have a choice. He had plenty of time to run up a tree, but he’d decided to stay on the ground and try his luck.
    So why had he done it? I could just about imagine some silly boy doing a thing like that for a dare, or doing it because his friends said he was a wimp, but John wouldn’t go for a dare, and no one thought he was a wimp. He’d done it for some other reason. I hadn’t figured out what it was, but I could see that John was like a good chess player: he didn’t just do what seemed right at one moment, he thought ahead. He thought about where he was trying to get to, four five moves on.
    Well, I was a bit like that too. I knew when to bide my time. So I didn’t ask John why he did for the leopard, however much I wanted to know, and I didn’t make a big fuss of him like most of the others did, and for most of the walk I fell behind him,