"This one speaks of lights in the forest," he said. "Station Seven."

"What...?"

"Fire," he said. "What if they've discovered fire?"

"Then they're not really beasts!"

"But they were!"

"They wear clothing now. They make some sort of sacrifice to ourmachines. They're not beasts any longer."

"How could it have happened?"

"How do you think? We did it. Perhaps they would have remainedstupid--animals--if we had not come along and forced them to get smart inorder to go on living. We've accelerated their evolution. They had to adaptor die, and they adapted."

"D'you think it would have happened if we hadn't come along?" he asked.

"Maybe--some day. Maybe not, too."

Jarry moved to the window, stared out across Deadland.

"I have to find out," he said. "If they are intelligent, if theyare--human, like us," he said, then laughed, "then we must consider theirways."

"What do you propose?"

"Locate some of the creatures. See whether we can communicate withthem."

"Hasn't it been tried?"

"Yes."

"What were the results?"

"Mixed. Some claim they have considerable understanding. Others placethem far below the threshold where humanity begins."

"We may be doing a terrible thing," she said. "Creating men, thendestroying them. Once, when I was feeling low, you told me that we were thegods of this world, that ours was the power to shape and to break. Oursis the power to shape and break, but I don't feel especiallydivine. What can we do? They have come this far, but do you think they canbear the change that will take us the rest of the way? What if they are likethe green birds? What if they've adapted as fast and as far as they can andit is not sufficient? What would a god do?"

"Whatever he wished," said Jarry.

That day, they cruised over Deadland in the flier, but the only signs