 Which is not a reason that Stinson decided to journey on the ice by foot [mostly didn't want to leave Sybtl behind on her own and felt important and had some level of curiosity]
Stinson lay still in the sand where he fell, gloating over the success of his arrival. He touched the pencil-line scar behind his ear where the cylinder was buried, marveling at the power stored there, power to fling him from earth to this fourth planet of the Centaurian system in an instant. It had happened so fast that he could almost feel the warm, humid Missouri air, though he was light years from Missouri. A gray, funnel-shaped cloud of dust stood off to his left. He watched it, trying to recall what he might know about cyclones. Weather control made cyclones and other climatic phenomena on earth practically non-existent. Dark clouds capped one peak of the mountains on his left. He was here and Earth was somewhere up there. The sun burned fiercely, although he would have said it was about four o'clock in the afternoon, if this had been Earth. The sun shone obliquely, throwing Stinson's shadow upon the sand. Again Stinson felt the urge to run, or to use the cylinder to project himself somewhere else, but he said, "No!" very firmly to himself. He was here to investigate, to determine if this planet was capable of supporting life. There was no core, no central place you could point to and say, here is the brain, or the nervous system. When it changed to a cube he drew a square, a circle for a sphere, and so on. He became so absorbed in doing this that he failed to notice how the wind devil drew closer and closer, but when he inhaled the first grains of sand, the realization of what was happening dawned with a flash of fear. As he stood beside a small creek, a chill wind blew from the northwest. He wanted to cover himself with the long leaves he found, but they were dry and brittle, for here autumn had turned the leaves. The current of warm air flowed toward him and he followed it, cautiously, stepping carefully and slowly. No definable form or sculptured line was visible, yet he felt, or saw—he did not know which senses told him—the immeasurable gulf of a million years of painful evolution. All were dressed from the waist down only, in a shimmering skirt that sparkled as they moved. They walked with the grace of ballet dancers, moving about the plaza, conversing in a musical language with no meaning for Stinson. He pointed upward, described a large circle, then another smaller, and showed how Earth revolved around the sun.
 He preferred to stay near the other people to keep an eye on them
 He figured he could not be tracked in this environent  He was drawn to his companion  He preferred to stay near the other people to keep an eye on them  He wanted to feel important for protecting someone