The brown-haired man the knife with a dexterity, its for a of an inch. Price looked at it and at him in horror. The six in a close circle above him and down, smiling.
"It's the same color, Burr. Who'd have it?"
"Just blood. Hah! And I always they'd hard and shiny, like quicksilver."
"Stick him again, Burr."
"I wish we had time," said Burr, and his with a red tongue. "But they know where we are." He and the knife again. "We got to out of here. Fast."
Price his voice. "For God's sake," he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing? I ask you for help, and you—" He against the ropes. "You haven't any right to kill me. I haven't done you any harm."
"Star-spawn," said Burr softly, using that word for the second time. He Price above the with the knife-point. "If I had time I'd do this slowly, very slowly. Be we don't have time."
"But why?" Price shouted. "What for?" He up at the circle of faces. "I only got here today. I couldn't have done anything to you. I came from—"
From yesterday? A hundred years ago? Through time? Tell them, and ask them to it. Maybe they will. I don't.
"—from the West," he said. "From Nevada. I haven't anything to do with stars."
Burr laughed. He the knife. But another man, with a dark and in his beard, his wrist.
"Wait a minute. Look at his hair. It's as dark as mine."
"Dyed," said Burr. "Look at his clothes. Look at the he came in, at his weapons. Look where he is—in the Forbidden Belt. If he isn't from the Citadel—don't be a man, Twist. Let go."
"Why would he his to look like a and then come to us in a flier? Is that reasonable? Now on, Burr. You me? There's a way to tell."
Burr grumbled, but he relaxed, and Twist let him go. He Price by the and him into the by the cow, where the in shafts. Then he rolled Price's and forth, studying it with interest. The others looked over his shoulder.
"His are dark too," said Twist. "You can't eyeballs. And look here. See that, Burr? Feel it. He's got the of a beard. Now we all know the Starlords don't on their faces."
"Hey," said the others. "That's right. Twist is right."
"Of he's right," said Price. "I'm human." He that much. The of the talk was a mystery, but that didn't matter. Not right now. "I come from the West. I'm a friend."
Burr looked sullen. "Humans don't fly. Only Starlords do that."
"Maybe he's a collaborator?" said a yellow-haired boy, all and eager, and Burr again.
"Maybe. Anyway, he's none of us. Stand by, Twist."
But Twist did not by. He the others in anger at their stupidity.
"You're for a killing Burr. Now what's the Chief going to say when we come and tell him that a man came in an airplane, and asked us for help, and we him like a pig and left the plane for the Star Lords?"
For some the word "plane" them and them thoughtful. Twist pressed his advantage.
"You've all the old pictures. You know this isn't from the Citadel. It ain't the same shape and it don't make the same noise. It's a plane. Maybe the last one on Earth, and this man how to it. And you want to cut his throat?"
There was a silence, which Price he the of his forehead. Then Burr said, without rancor,
"I you're right. We'd take him to the Chief."
"All right," said Twist. He and the ropes. Price said, "Thanks." It a very small word, and inadequate. Twist grunted.
"If you prove out to be a collaborator," he said, "you'll wish I'd let you die an easy death."
"I'm not," said Price. His brain had been with speed. "This is an—an old plane. The papers are still in it. It's been hidden, except—" He for explanations. "It's a in my family to fly. We're taught, father to son."
That was true enough. Price's father had taken to the air in World War I, and for years had a service. The of it he had to play by ear, and God help him if he wrong.
Twist helped him to his feet. "Now," he said to the others, "I want to know what about that plane."
"Get it under cover," Burr said. "Hide it."
"We might do that," Twist said. "And the flying-eye that along would it. They do more than see, you know. They smell, too. They metal, if it's much than a knife." He out the stone-weighted and them. "That's why we use these when we in the Belt. Remember?"
"Now, there's no call to be jeering, Twist," said Burr. "If you got a idea, we'll to it."
"Fly it out," said Twist sharply. "How else are we going to it to the Chief? On our backs? Cut up and packed on the horses? No." He to the man who had taken Price's pistol. "Give me that, Larkin. And you, Harper, hand that to Burr. Larkin, you're in of the party. Get the to the camp, and as soon as you've it up and home. Keep an out for trouble—this is to up the Citadel like you'd a beehive."
Larkin, a powerful man with a like a type of Price had once seen, asked in a mild high voice, "Where are you and Burr going?"
Twist pointed a thumb sky-ward. "Up there," he said, and his with excitement. He looked at Burr and grinned.
Burr was scared. It in his eyes, in the way his mouth tightened. But he wouldn't say so. Instead he out and Price by the shirt and him fiercely.
"There'll be a gun at your every minute, and don't you forget. You do anything wrong, and you're dead."
Price to what would to Burr and Twist if they him in mid-air. He only and said,
"Don't worry. I'm as to to your Chief as you are." He took a and plunged. "That's what I came for."
Burr said, "You're a long way out of your way."
"This is new country to me. I got lost."
You don't know how lost. You don't know how alone.
"Come on," said Twist. "There's been too much already."
He the way to the of the trees. Price and Burr him. The others were already on the carcass. Presently they were from sight. At the of the the three men stopped and the visible world they left cover. Price looked around and did not see anything and was to go on. Burr and Twist not only looked at earth and sky, they the wind and to the quality of the air, like animals.
Twist gave a of and said, "Well, we're in it now, whole hog." He to through the long toward the plane. Burr after him. Price, with many of which physical was the least, ran them.
When they were fifteen of the plane a thing came over the of the trees and hesitated, making a of in the air. Then it over the plane and there, high above. It was a disc-shaped object maybe three across, with a big on its underside.
Twist and Burr had stopped. Price came up to them. They were looking up at the disc, and Price saw in their a wild of and and the of men with an enemy that no amount of or physical can against.
"What is it?" he asked, and Twist said hoarsely,
"You must be from a long way west if you've a flying-eye." His hands to his sides. "Well. That's finished."
Burr to at the thing. He looked as if he wanted to cry.
"What will it do?" asked Price.
"It'll there, right where it is, to the from the Citadel. They can see us here where we stand, right now, in the Citadel." Burr's was by the second, like a man who has been by some thing and that in this present moment, as it were, he must die. "They'll be starting. It's to come into the Belt. They'd kill us for that alone. But with the plane—God what they'll do."
"We can try and them in the woods," said Twist, without hope. "Come on."
He started away, but Price said, "Can't we it?"
"The flying-eye? It'll us like a hound."
Some of television-scanner, Price thought, with a metal-detection unit and a to the main in the Citadel. And what was the Citadel, and who or what it was now him as he stood, and preparing for his death?
He said, the terror from the others, "Shoot it down."
"Shoot it?"
"Smash the lens. Then it can't see us. Here, give me the rifle."
Burr said, "You crazy? No gun will that far."
"What of have you got?" said Price. "Damn it, give me the rifle."
Twist said, "Let him have it."
Price was a good shot. Not brilliant, just good. But today he was phenomenal. He the and there were it as fast as he pump the into the and fire them. He didn't miss once. And the and and in the woods.
Price for the plane. "Come on," he said.
The others were at him, with their open. "Did you see that? Did you see that gun?"
"Come on," Price yelled, "or I'm going without you!"
They in. Price started the motor, it savagely, and took off as though the was on his tail. One of the men, he didn't know which, out in fright, once. Then they were clear of the tree-tops and fast.
Price looked over his shoulder, and once again he he saw that dark in the northeast.
"Which way?"
"Back across the river. And then," said Twist slowly, "I don't know. They've the plane. They'll come looking for it, and the place they'll look is the Capitol, and after that the villages. They'll it if it's near, and you can what they'll do to the people. They let us have our and our knives, so we can kill game and each other if we like it, but artillery, no. Explosives, no. And planes, no, no, no. Especially not planes. I don't there's been one in the air for almost a century."
Twist shivered, his shining, his hands the seat.
"I'm I got to do this I die. It's—" He for a word and gave up. "I can't say. But it makes you think what we were once, what we have been today if it hadn't been for them." And he his to the direction of the Citadel. "The star-spawn. The Star Lords."
Burr looked out the window. "It's an long way down." Then he asked Price, "Why'd you say you came to the Chief?"
A man, Price thought, and so is Twist. Careful, careful. But how can you be when you don't know what's going on in the world, and you don't ask?
Price said, "I came to give him the plane. I'm the last of my family. I wanted to join up with somebody, and—there aren't many in the desert." This, he thought, was a safe assumption. "Life's too hard. I wanted to come where there are trees and water."
It was a good story. He didn't know they it.
The Beechcraft left a on the river and passed on. Twist into the sky behind.
"Can you go any faster?"
"I'm wide open now."
"Not fast enough. They come like lightning. Whoom!" Jets, Price, and to look for a in the forest. Twist said, "And if they don't us the time, they'll send the flying-eyes."
"And they can metal," Price said. "So we've got to a place away from any town and not only out of from above but also screened from a magnetic detector. Say in a cave, under a ledge, or close to some of metal they're already used to. Can you think of any place?"
There was a total silence, and he that they were looking at him with cold and eyes.
"How do you know so much?" asked Burr.
"Isn't it obvious?" said Price impatiently.
"Not to us. What's all this about magnetic and screens—and where did you learn it if you're not for the Citadel?"
Twist the of the against his neck.
"I wouldn't shoot me now," said Price, and why, very quickly. "Besides, that's a of a way to act. Just I to know a little science—how else do you the flying-eyes metal? By some method?"
"Hm," said Twist, and the revolver. "Maybe he's right, Burr. After all, we're hunters. We much into those things." Burr derisively, but he sat still, that there was nothing to be done about Price now. Twist hard for a minute. Then he said, "I know a place. There's a of a there, and room for you to land, I guess, by what you took before."
He out the window, by the of how looked from above. But he out a direction and told Price, "There."
After some low-level and Price the place, a of in a little valley, an of granite. Twist's of the room was generous, but he it, and over as close as he to the cave-mouth Twist pointed out. Then he sent the others to clear away some and creepers, and with a final and he managed to into the itself. He cut the motor. He had about four hours' time left in the tanks.
He got out of the Beechcraft and under the to it. Then he helped Burr and Twist the over the entrance.
A high in the sky gave them less than ten seconds' warning. They under the and from under it. And Price saw close above him, the land like an hawk, an that was not like any he had seen, wingless, no trail, but with a of power through the sky.
