Day after day, Garrett through the stereoscopic receptors of his robot crawler hidden in the hills above the river watched the entrancing creature, minutely, eagerly. He cursed whenever heat waves rising from the sun-warmed land made the intensely magnified view shake crazily, and he found himself instinctively holding his breath as if somehow that would damp down the wild oscillations. Longingly he stared into his viewer, drinking up every little detail, and thrilling strangely to each tiny clue about this nameless young lady’s behavior, her habits, and her personality. And of course, he recorded it all, capturing everything possible so that he could study it and, perhaps, simply wallow pleasantly in the recordings, too.
The sable-tressed girl was tall and pale and slender, with beautifu
