You may be jeopardizing the study.”
“We have made little enough progress,” said Brenner.
“Do not change them, or interfere with them “ said Rodriguez.
“Is that an order?” smiled Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez.
“I think they like me,” said Brenner.
“You do not know that,” said Rodriguez.
“They have probably received little enough respect, and little enough decent treatment, from members of our species,” said Brenner.
“Do not interfere with them, and do not lose your objectivity,” said Rodriguez.
“I want to win their confidence,” said Brenner.
“You could as easily win the confidence of the git,” said Rodriguez. He gestured with his head toward the git in its cage on the table, in the shelter, in the clearing. Its keeper had now finished feeding it.
“What did you want to show me?” asked Brenner.
Rodriguez looked down at the Pons. “Some pretty rocks I found to the southwest,” he said.
The Pons looked up, blinking.
“Go away,” said Rodriguez. “Go away.”
They scurried away.
“You are prepared to leave now?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “And you?”
“Of course,” said Brenner.
The two men then started for the gate of the palisade.
They looked back, once.
“Look,” said Rodriguez. “Surely that is your little friend.”
“Yes,” said Brenner, ruefully.
The Pon, he who had thrown the stone, he who had bared his teeth to Rodriguez, and to the other Pons, had apparently sneaked back to the place of the lesson. He was picking up the pebbles, one by one. He then flung them away, scattering them. He picked up the twigs, too, from where Brenner had left them on the ground, and flung them away, as well. He then looked up, and, seeing the eyes of Rodriguez and Brenner upon him, bared his teeth, defiantly, and then hurried away.
“Pleasant fellow,” said Rodriguez.
“He will not let me approach him, or make friends,” said Brenner.
“The recorder is missing,” said Rodriguez.
“This morning?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez.
“Last week it was a buckle and shoelaces,” said Brenner.
“The week before that the camera,” said Rodriguez.
“We transcribed the material from the recorder,” said Brenner. They had done that in case of damage to, or deterioration of, the recording. “And we never used the camera,” he added, “so we have not lost any material there.”
“They are thieving gits,” said Rodriguez.
“They are like children,” said Brenner.
“It is one thing to steal a handful of glass beads,” said Rodriguez. “It is another to make off with a thousand-credit camera.”
“To them it is only another belt buckle,” said Brenner.
“They are thieves,” said Rodriguez.
“No, they are Pons,” smiled Brenner.
“There is no one even to complain to,” said Rodriguez. “There are no mayors, no governors, no police.”
“No state,” said Brenner.
“Good for them,” growled Rodriguez.
“Unless perhaps something like a “state of nature,”” mused Brenner.
“Perhaps they can get around to the social compact, someday,” said Rodriguez.
“I have questioned several Pons about these things,” said Brenner, “but have obtained no satisfaction. I am not even sure they understand what I am talking about.”
Rodriguez grunted, angrily.
“They may not have a concept of private property,” said Brenner.
“And thus not of theft?”
“Precisely,” said Brenner.
“Even mice have such a concept,” said Rodriguez. “They are not good at sharing pieces of cheese.”
“Perhaps the Pons believe that property itself is theft,” said Brenner.
“Tell that to someone who has worked for it,” said Rodriguez.
“They may believe it,” said Brenner.
“That is usually said by someone who is preparing to steal something from someone else,” said Rodriguez.
“Do not be cynical,” said Brenner. “The Pons, of all forms of life with which I am familiar, that is, encultured forms, most closely approximates the ideal of total egalitarianism, and not in political myth, reenacting familiar charades, but in reality.”
“They are primitive,” granted Rodriguez.
“That is not what I meant,” said Brenner.
“Nature is aristocratic,” said Rodriguez.
“You suggest then, that the Pons are not, in effect, in a state of nature?”
“Does it seem so to you?” asked Rodriguez.
“How would I know?” asked Brenner.
“Consider nature,” said Rodriguez.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“In it there is always distance, rank and hierarchy,” said Rodriguez.
“Then the Pons would not seem to be in a state of nature,” said Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez.
“Yet they are surely primitive,” said Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez.
“Do you think that our little friend, the one who seems to have taken such a dislike to me, is the thief?” asked Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez. “I don’t think he would even touch anything of yours.”
“He hates me too much?”
“It would seem so,” said Rodriguez.
“Who then?” asked Brenner.
“It need not be one,” said Rodriguez. “It could be several of them, one at one time, another at another time.”
The two men had now passed well beyond the palisade,