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do!”
    Geogee nodded in agreement, his scowl just as heavy.
    The twins resembled each other in that their hair was fair, almost white where the sun had bleached it, and they had the same general contour of feature. Jony had never been able to see anything of Rutee in them. But Rutee had always said that Jony, himself, was like his father. He often wished that Maba, at least, had had Rutee's dark hair, her face. Now it sometimes seemed he could not, in spite of all his concentration, recall Rutee at all. Except as just a shadowy shape whom he continued to miss with a dull ache.
    “They do know more than you do,” he said shortly. “If you'd copy them a little, it would be better—”
    “Why?” Geogee asked. “We aren't them. Why do we have to act like them at all?”
    Jony frowned in return. He had been through this many times during the past seasons. The older the twins grew, the more they wanted to question and argue. At times he had even had to cuff them, as Voak had cuffed him once or twice in the past when he had been foolish and thoughtless.
    “We act like them because they have learned to live here. This is their world; they know best how to use it.”
    “Then where's our world? And why can't we go there?” Maba asked a question he had also answered many times over.
    “I don't know where our world is. You know how we came here—the Big Ones had Rutee and me in their sky ship. We got away from them. Rutee saw their ship go back into the sky. We were left here. Which is much better than being in the cages of the Big Ones. Now get going; Yaa is waiting.”
    “Yaa is always waiting.” Maba refused to let his warning silence her. “She wants me to make some more netting. I don't see why I have to. While you get to go off out there.” She made a wide circle with her arm to include the hills ahead of them. “I want to go too.”
    “Yes,” Geogee nodded. “Huuf goes, so we can . . .”
    “Huuf,” Jony tried to put full emphasis on what he said now, “watches all the time. He does not run off and hide, or pretend he is lost in order to have the whole clan out hunting for him.”
    Maba laughed. “That was fun,” she broke out. “Even if Yaa did slap us when we got back. We want to go and see things, Jony, just not always stay around where the People are. They really don't like anything different to do.”
    She was right, of course. But both the twins must learn caution, and they seemed unable to understand, or want to understand, that danger walked with the unknown. For Jony the situation was different. He was much older, bigger, and he had his warning sense to call upon. If the twins only had that, he would not have worried so about their taking off into the unknown. But they had not the least trace of his talent.
    “Wait until you're older—” he began when Geogee interrupted.
    “You say that every time. We do get older, and still you keep on saying it. You're just never going to let us go. But you wait, Jony. I'm 'most as tall as you now. Someday I'm just going to walk away to go and see things for myself. And Voak and Yaa, they aren't going to stop me, even, any more than you can then, Jony. You'll see!”
    Maba was smiling, and Jony distrusted that smile. He had seen that expression before and it generally meant trouble to come. But he could rely upon Yaa; she would not let either twin out of her sight once they were back in camp.
    Oddly enough both Maba and Geogee went the rest of the way uncomplainingly and with no more questions. Jony saw them back under Yaa's kind, all-seeing eyes, then went to the opposite side of the campsite where the unmated males had their own small inner circle. The clan was a small one, closely related by blood ties. If any of these younger males wished a mate, he must wait until one of the clan assemblies, which occurred before the coming of the cold, and try then to urge a female away from another family group to join with him. Three of the older ones were already