They digested that slowly. Clearly, they weren’t friendly to the government, but they stood in too much awe of aircraft and armament to be openly hostile. The leader spat. “How long you staying?”

“Just overnight, if you’ll put me up. I’ll pay for it.” He held up a small pouch. ‘‘Tobacco.’’

Their eyes gleamed, and the leader said, “You’ll stay with me. Come on.”

Drummond gave him the bribe and went with the group. He didn’t like to spend such priceless luxuries this freely, but the job was more important. And the boss seemed thawed a little by the fragrant brown flakes. He was sniffing them greedily.

“Been smoking bark an’ grass,” he confided. “Terrible.”

“Worse than that,” agreed Drummond. He turned up his jacket collar and shivered. The wind starting to blow was bitterly cold.

“Just what y’ here for?” demanded someone else.

“Well, just to see how things stand. We’ve got the government started again, and are patching things up. But we have to know where folks are, what they need, and so on.”

“Don’t want nothing t’ do with the gov’ment,” muttered a woman. “They brung all this on us.”

“Oh, come now. We didn’t ask to be attacked.” Mentally, Drummond crossed his fingers. He neither knew nor cared who was to blame. Both sides, letting mutual fear and friction mount to hysteria—In fact, he wasn’t sure the United States hadn’t sent out the first rockets on orders of some panicky or aggressive officials. Nobody was alive who admitted knowing.

“It’s the jedgment o’ God, for the sins o’ our leaders,” persisted the woman. “The plague, the fire-death, all that, ain’t it foretold in the Bible? Ain’t we living in the last days o’ the world?”

“Maybe.” Drummond was glad to stop before a long low cabin. Religious argument was touchy at best, and with a lot of people nowadays it was dynamite.

* * *

They entered the rudely furnished but fairly comfortable structure. A good many crowded in with them. For all their suspicion, they were curious, and an outsider in an aircraft was a blue-moon event these days.

Drummond’s eyes flickered unobtrusively about the room, noticing details. Three women—that meant a return to concubinage. Only to be expected in a day of few men and strong-arm rule. Ornaments and utensils, tools and weapons of good quality—yes, that confirmed the stories. This wasn’t exactly a bandit town, but it had waylaid travelers and raided other places when times were hard, and built up a sort of dominance of the surrounding country. That, too, was common.

There was a dog on the floor nursing a litter. Only three pups, and one of those was bald, one lacked ears, and one had more toes than it should. Among the wide-eyed children present, there were several two years old or less, and with almost no obvious exceptions, they were also different.

Drummond sighed heavily and sat down. In a way, this clinched it. He’d known for a long time, and finding mutation here, as far as any place from atomic destruction, was about the last evidence he needed.