TO CLOSE RANKS
Shann his way at an to avoid the the of the Terran ship. There were no of life about the Throg plate as he approached. A of its was into the rest, and surely none of the have such a smash, as they were to be with those them in place of more skin.
He sniffed. There was a odor on the air, one which would make a on any nose. The port door in the black ship open, having in the impact against the cliff. Shann had almost it when a of across the ground him, the of the entrance red.
Shann to the ground, his stunner, at the same moment that such a was about as much use in meeting a as a would be to off a coal. A him as he waited for a second blast to the his shoulders. So there had been a Throg survivor, after all.
But as moments passed and the Throg did not move in to make an easy kill, Shann his wits. Only one shot! Was the injured, unable to make sure of an almost prey? The Throgs took prisoners. When they did....
The Terran's tightened. He his hand under his body, for the of his knife. With that he remove himself from the of Throg prisoner, and he would do it if there was no of escape. Had there been only one left in that blaster? Shann make a dozen as to why the other had no move, but that had come from him, and he not turn his or otherwise make an to see what the other might be doing.
Was it only his imagination, or had that the last seconds? Could the Throg be up on him? Shann his ears, trying to catch some he interpret. The clak-claks that had the blast about the ship were overhead, and Shann one attempt at counterattack.
He the wolverines' call. The pair had not been too to him into this valley, and they had the at a very wide circle. But if they would him now, he just might have a chance.
There! That had been a sound, and the was stronger. The Throg must be to him. Again Shann whistled, in his mind his for the beetle-head, the need for off that alien. If the animals either or out of their companion, this was the time for him to those half-orders across.
Shann his hand hard against the ground, sent his rolling, his up and ready.
And now he see that thing, and on its thin legs, yet a blaster, that up to center it on him. The Throg was over and to Taggi presented the of some four-footed to be hunted. For the male for the horn-shelled shoulders.
Under that impact that Throg forward. But Taggi, at the nature of he had attacked, and retreated. Shann had had his of distraction. He fired, the of the full into the dish of the alien's "face."
That bolt, which would have a into insensibility, only the Throg. Shann rolled again, a temporary the ship. He under metal to his jacket and saw the of a second which had been late.
Now the Throg had him down. But to at the Terran the would have to himself, and Shann had one in fifty, which was than that of three minutes ago—when the had been set at one in a hundred. He that he not press the in again. Taggi's was too manifest; Shann had been lucky that the animal had one attack.
Perhaps the Terran's and Taggi's action had the reckless. Shann had no to the of the non-human, but now the Throg around the end of the plate, his digits, which were closer to than fingers, with his weapon. The Terran another from his stunner, to slow the enemy down. But he was trapped. If he to climb the at his back, the beetle-head easily him off.
A from the above, with on the domed, of the Throg. His forward, against the ship, and to the ground. Shann to the blaster, kicking the which still it, he to the cliff, the over his arm, his wildly.
That had not the by chance; it had been with and at its target. And no Throg would kill one of his fellows. Or would he? Suppose orders had been to take a Terran and the Throg by the ship had disobeyed? Then, why a and not a bolt?
Shann along until the upslanted, of the Throg provided him with protection from any overhead attack. Under that he waited for the next move from his unknown rescuer.
The clak-claks closer to earth. One on the of the Throg, along that ridge. Cradling the blaster, the Terran to wait. His patience was when that clak-clak took off an or two. He what might be the of across rock, but that might also have come from skin meeting stone.
Then the other must have his not too above. Accompanied by a of and earth, a yards away. Shann waited in a half-crouch, his the man now to his feet. There was no the familiar uniform, or the man. How Ragnar Thorvald had that particular spot on Warlock or why, Shann not know. But that he was there, there was no denying.
Shann forward. It had been when he his of Thorvald that he just how his had bit. There were two Terrans on Warlock now, and he did not need to know why. But Thorvald was at him with the of non-recognition.
"Who are you?" The something close to suspicion.
That note in the other's voice away a measure of Shann's confidence, something which had in him since he had into the on his own. Three had him again to Lantee, laborer.
"Lantee. I'm from the camp...."
Thorvald's was plain in his next question: "How many of you got away? Where are the rest?" He past Shann up the as if he to see the of the out of the of along the verge.
"Just me and the wolverines," Shann answered in a voice. He the on his hip, a little away from the officer.
"You ... and the wolverines?" Thorvald was startled. "But ... where? How?"
"The Throgs very early yesterday morning. They the in camp. The had from their cage, and I was out them...." He told his baldly.
"You're sure about the rest?" Thorvald had a thin of his voice. Almost, Shann thought, as if he turn that of against one Shann Lantee for being yet alive when more men had not survived.
"I saw the attack from an upper ridge," the man said, having been put on the defensive. Yet he had a right to be alive, hadn't he? Or did Thorvald that he should have gone to meet the beetle-heads with his stunner? "They used energy ... didn't land until it was all over."
"I there was something when the didn't answer our enter-atmosphere signal," Thorvald said absently. "Then one of those jumped us on orbit, and my pilot was killed. When we set on the here I had just time to a for any I took to the hills——"
"The blast got one of them," Shann pointed out.
"Yes, they'd the rocket; she wouldn't climb again. But they'll be here to over the remains."
Shann looked at the Throg. "Thanks for taking a hand." His was as as the other's this time. "I'm south...."
And, he added silently, I to keep on that way. The Throg attack had the pattern of the Survey team. He didn't Thorvald any allegiance. And he had been on his own here since the had been overrun.
"South," Thorvald repeated. "Well, that's as good a direction as any right now."
But they were not united. Shann the and and them into with him over a which them away from ships. Thorvald up the cliff, again, a supply over one shoulder. He as Shann the animals in.
Then Thorvald's arm out, his about the of the blaster. Shann's own on the tightened, and the of the other's him around.
"Let's have that——"
"Why?" Shann that it had been the other's well-aimed which had put the Throg out of permanently, the officer was going to their only of as personal booty, and a in the man.
"We don't take that away from here." Thorvald the his with a quick twist.
To Shann's astonishment, the Survey officer walked to the Throg. He the of the under the alien's and the result with the of one a special and display. Shann's vocal. "We'll need that!"
"It'll do us more good right where it is...." Thorvald paused and then added, with his voice as if he the need for making any explanations, "There is no for us to our being alive. If the Throgs a missing, they'd start and looking around. I want to have a spell I have to play in one of their hunts."
Put that way, his action did make sense. But Shann the of an arm so to their own weapons. Now they not the either. In he and started to southward, without waiting for Thorvald to catch up with him.
Once away from the area, the ahead at their gallop, which ground at a of speed. Shann that their them any and that the men who would have of any to come. Without to his companion, he sent the animals toward another of which would give them against the of any Throg flyer.
As the hours he to about for a proper night camp. The ought to give them a site.
"This is a water wood," Thorvald said, the for the time since they had left the wrecks.
Shann that the other had knowledge, not only of the countryside, but of which he himself did not possess, but to be of that was an than a reassurance. Without answering, the man on to the water promised.
The the small and were along its when the Terrans up. Thorvald to work, but to Shann's he did not the force-blade ax at his belt. Bending over a sapling, he away with a at the green a above the line until he was able to through the trunk. Shann his own knife and to another when Thorvald stopped him with an order: "Use a on that, the way I did."
Shann see no for such a process. If Thorvald did not want to use his ax, that was no that Shann not put his knife to work. He hesitated, to set the to the of the tree.
"Look—" again that in the officer's tone, the need for to come very hard to the other—"sooner or later the Throgs might just us here and this camp. If so, they are not going to any to label us Terran——"
"But who else we be?" Shann. "There is no native on Warlock."
Thorvald his ax from hand to hand.
"But do the Throgs know that?"
The implications, the possibilities, in that idea home to Shann. Now he to what Thorvald might be planning.
"Now there is going to be a native race." Shann a of a question and saw that the other was him with a new intentness, as if he had at last been as a person of rank and file and very low rank at that—Survey personnel.
"There is going to be a native race," Thorvald affirmed.
Shann his knife and to search the beach for a to use in its place. Even so, he work of the than Thorvald had. He at one after another until his hands were and his came in painful from under ribs. Thorvald had gone on to another task, the end of a long from just under the surface of the thick in other years.
With this the officer together the of the poles, having planted their in the ground, so that he a erection. Leafy were and through this framework, with an entrance, through which one might on hands and knees, left the lakeside. The they was and but totally anything Shann had before, from the of the camp. He said so, nursing his hands.
"An old form," Thorvald replied, "native to a on Terra. Certainly the beetle-heads haven't come across its like before."
"Are we going to here? Otherwise it is work for one night's lodging."
Thorvald the with a shake. The whispered, but the held.
"Stage dressing. No, we won't here. But it's to support our play. Even a Throg isn't to that would make a cross-country without of their passing."
Shann sat with a he no to suppress. He had a of Thorvald traveling southward, these here and there to Throgs who might not upon them. But already the Survey officer was with a new problem.
"We need weapons——"
"We have our stunners, a ax, and our knives," Shann pointed out. He did not add, as he would have liked that they have had a blaster.
"Native weapons," Thorvald with his snap. He to the beach and about there, and out of the gravel.
Shann out a small just their and set about the making of a pocket-sized fire. He was and looked now and again to the supply Thorvald had with him. Dared he in that for rations? Surely the other would be concentrates.
"Who you how to make a fire that way?" Thorvald was from the pond, a selection of about the size of his his and his forearm.
"It's regulation, isn't it?" Shann defensively.
"It's regulation," Thorvald agreed. He set his in a and then the supply over to his companion. "Too late to tonight. But well have to go easy on those until we can more."
"Where?" Did Thorvald know of some supply they raid?
"From the Throgs," the other answered of factly.
"But they don't eat our of food...."
"All the more for them to the untouched."
"The camp?"
For the time Thorvald's in a which was neither warming. "A native on an invaders' camp. What be more natural? And we'd make it soon."
"But how can we?" To Shann what the other was madness.
"There was once an service on Terra," Thorvald answered, "which had a something like this: 'The we do at once; the takes a little longer.' What did you think we were going to do? Sulk around out here in the and let the Throgs Warlock for one of their without opposition?"
Since that was the only Shann had visualized, he was to admit the truth, only some of in the officer's voice him from saying so aloud.
