Fire, mankind's ally, weapon, tool, high the of the side. Men sat cross-legged about it, fifteen of them. And behind, by the and that circle, were the women. There was a in this gathering. The members were all of the same stock, of medium height, yet to the of and endurance, their skin brown, their shoulder-length black. And they were all young—none over thirty, some still in their late teens. Alike, too, was a look in their faces, a of the and mouth as they to Travis.
"So we must be on Topaz. Do any of you the ship?"
"No. Only that we it." Across the fire one lifted; the which Travis' a deep, anger. "This is more of the Pinda-lick-o-yi, the White Eyes. Between us there has been dealing. They have their promise as a man a stick, for their are as rotten. And it was you, Fox, who us to to them."
A about the circle, a from the women.
"And do I not also here with you in this wilderness?" he countered.
"I do not understand," another of the men out his hand, up, in a of asking—"what has to us. We were in the old Apache world.... I, Jil-Lee, was with Cuchillo Negro as we to the taking of Ramos. And then I was here, in a ship and me a man who was once my brother. How did I come out of the past of our people into another world across the stars?"
"Pinda-lick-o-yi tricks!" The into the fire.
"It was the Redax, I think," Travis replied. "I Dr. Ashe discuss this. A new machine which make a man not his own past, but the past of his ancestors. While we were on that ship we must have been under its influence, so we as our people a hundred years or more ago—"
"And the purpose of such a thing?" Jil-Lee asked.
"To make us more like our perhaps. It is part of what they told us at the project. To into these new worlds a different type of man than on Terra today. Traits we have are needed to the of wild places."
"You, Fox, have been the before, and you there were such to face?"
"It is true. You have of the three worlds I saw when the ship from the old days took us off, unwilling, to the stars. Did you not all to in this manner so you also see and new things?"
"But we did not agree to be returned to the past in medicine and be sent into space!"
Travis nodded. "Deklay is right. But I know no more than you why we were so sent, or why the ship crashed. We have Dr. Ruthven's in the with that new installation. Only we have nothing else which tells us why we were here. With the ship broken, we must stay."
They were now, men and alike. Behind them days of activity, nights of slumber. Against the the of they had from the wreck. By they had left the of the globe, their old of from a place of death.
"This is a world empty of men?" Jil-Lee wanted to know.
"So we have only animal signs, and the ga-n have not us of anything else——"
"Those ones!" Again Deklay into the fire. "I say we should have no with them. The mba'a is no friend to the People."
Again a which one of agreement answered that outburst. Travis stiffened. Just how much had the Redax had over them? He from his own that sometimes he had an odd reaction—two different which almost him when they simultaneously. And he was to that with some of the others the return to the past had been more and lasting. Now Jil-Lee was actually to out what had happened. While Deklay had to an who had with Victorio or Magnus Colorado! Travis had a of premonition, a which him a time when the past and the present might well them apart—fatally.
"Devil or ga-n." A man with a face, eyes, spoke for the time. "We are in two minds of this Redax, so let us not do anything in haste. Back in the world of the People I have the mba'a, and he was very clever. With the he hunting, and when the had up the rat's nest, so did the mba'a wait on the other of the and catch those who would that way. Between him and the there was no war. These two who over now—they are also and they to us. In a place a man needs all the help he can find. Let us not call names out of old tales, which may nothing in fact."
"Buck speaks straightly," Jil-Lee agreed. "We a which can be defended. For there are men here we have invaded, though we have not yet them. We are a people small in number and alone. Let us walk on which are to our feet."
Inwardly Travis in relief. Buck, Jil-Lee ... for the moment their appeared to the opinions of the party. If either of them be as haldzil, or leader, they would all be safer. He himself had no in that direction and not push too hard. It had been his which had them as into the project. Now he was suspect, and by those who as Deklay, he was too to their old ways.
So their had been than he anticipated. Although and sisters had each other into the team after the of Apaches to to family ties, they were not a true with of that to them, but of a dozen.
Basically, on Terra, they had all been among the most progressive of their people—progressive, that is, in the white man's of the word. Travis had a of his now way of thinking. He, too, had been marked by the Redax. They had all been in the modern fashion and all a of which marked them over their fellows. They had for the team and passed the to out the or fainthearted. But all that was Redax....
Why had they been submitted to that? And why this flight? What had pushed Dr. Ashe and Murdock and Colonel Kelgarries, time he and trusted, into them without to Topaz? Something had happened, something which had Dr. Ruthven over those others and had started them on this wild trip.
Travis was of a about the circle. The men were rising, moving into the shadows, out on the they had among other stores on the ship. They had there—knives, bows, of arrows, all of which they had been to use in the of the project and which needed no more repair than they themselves give. And the they were supplies, of them. Tomorrow they must in earnest....
"Why has this thing been done to us?" Buck was Travis, those past him to the fire once more. "I do not think you were told when the of us were not——"
Travis upon that. "There are those who say that I knew, agreed?"
"That is so. Once we at the same place in time—in our thoughts, our desires. Now we at many places, as if we a stairway, each at his own speed—a the Pinda-lick-o-yi has set us upon. Some here, some there, some yet above...." He sketched a series of step in the air. "And in this there is trouble—"
"The truth," Travis agreed. "Yet it is also true that I nothing of this, that I climb with you on these stairs."
"So I believe. But there comes a time when it is best not to be a woman a pot of but one who at a distance—"
"You mean?" Travis pressed.
"I say that alone among us you have the before, therefore new are not so hard to understand. And we need a scout. Also the in your footsteps, and you do not them."
It good sense. Let him ahead of the party, taking the with him. Stay away from the for a while and speak small—until the people on Buck's were more closely united.
"I go in the morning," Travis agreed. He away tonight, but just now he not himself away from the fire, from the companionship.
"You might take Tsoay with you," Buck continued.
Travis waited for him to on that suggestion. Tsoay was one of the of their group, Buck's own cross-cousin and near-brother.
"It is well," Buck explained, "that we learn this land, and it has always been our that the walk in the of the older. Also, not only should be learned, but also men."
Travis the that. Perhaps by taking the men as scouts, one after another, he up among them a of sorts. Among the Apaches, was a of personality. Until the days, had their position by of alone, though they might come from one family over generations.
He did not want the here. No, but neither did he want about him to cut him off from his people. To every Apache from the was a little death. He must have those who would him if Deklay, or those who like Deklay, into open hostility.
"Tsoay is one quick to learn," Travis agreed. "We go at dawn—"
"Along the range?" Buck inquired.
"If we a protected place for the rancheria, yes. The have always provided good for the People."
"And you think there is need for a fort?"
Travis shrugged. "I have been one day's out into this world. I saw nothing but animals. But that is no promise that there are no enemies. The was on the we from that other world, and so it was to the others who once star and star as we and town. If they had this world set on a tape, it was for a reason; that may still be in force."
"Yet it was long ago that these star people so...." Buck mused. "Would the last so long?"
Travis two other worlds, one of by things—or had they once been human, to the point of intelligence?—that had come out of at night to attack a spaceship. And the second world where the of a city had with vegetation, where he had a from of metal as a gift for small men—but were they men? Both had been of that empire.
"Some so remain," he answered soberly. "If we them, we must be careful. But a good site for the rancheria."
"There is no return to home for us," Buck flatly.
"Why do you say that? There be a ship later—"
The other his again to Travis. "When you slept under the Redax how did you ride?"
"As a warrior—raiding ... living...."
"And I—I was one with go'ndi," Buck returned simply.
"But—"
"But the white man has us that such power—the power of a chief—does not exist? Yes, the Pinda-lick-o-yi has told us so many things. He is busy, with his tools, his machines, always busy. And those who think in another fashion cannot be by his rules, so they are dreamers. Not all white men think so. There was Dr. Ashe—he was to a little.
"Perhaps I, too, am still, up the of the past. But of this I am very sure: For us, there will be no return to our own place. And the time will come when something new shall from the of the past. Also it is necessary that you be one of the of that growth. So I you, take Tsoay, and the next time, Lupe. For the who may be this way and that by words—as the wind a small tree—must be roots."
In Travis education with instinct, just as the picture Redax had planted in his mind had with his to this landscape. Yet now he he must be by what he felt. And he that no man of his would go'ndi, the power of only to a great chief, unless he had actually it him. It might have been by in the past, but the of it into the here and now. And Travis had no that Buck in what he said, and that to others.
"This is wisdom, Nantan—"
Buck his head. "I am no nantan, no chief. But of some I am sure. You also be sure of what you, brother!"
On the third day, along the of the range, Travis what he would be an site. There was a with a good of water cut by well-marked game trails. A series of him up to a small where be used to the wickiups. Water and food reach, and the approach was easy to defend. Even Deklay and his were to the value of the site.
His to the accomplished, Travis returned to his own concern, one which had him for days. Topaz had been by men of the star empire. Therefore, the was important, but why? As yet he had no that anything above the level of the was native to this world. But he was by the that there was something here, waiting.... And the to learn what it was an ever-burning ache.
Perhaps he was what Deklay had him of being, one who had come to the road of the Pinda-lick-o-yi too closely. For Travis was to with only the for company, and he did not the of the unknown as as most of the others.
He was his small pack on the fourth day after they had settled on the when Buck and Jil-Lee him.
"You go to hunt—?" Buck the first.
"Not for meat."
"What do you fear? That ndendai—enemy people—have marked this as their land?" Jil-Lee questioned.
"That may be true, but now I for what this world was at one time, the why the star men marked it as their own."
"And this knowledge may be of value to us?" Jil-Lee asked slowly. "Will it food to our mouths, for our bodies—mean life for us?"
"All that is possible. It is the which is bad."
"True. Unknowing is always bad," Buck agreed. "But the which is to one hand and of arm, may not be to another. Remember that, brother. Also, do you go alone?"
"With Naginlta and Nalik'ideyu I am not alone."
"Take Tsoay with you also. The four-footed ones are ga-n for the service of those they like, but it is not good that man walks alone from his kind."
There it was again, the of which Travis did not always share. On the other hand, Tsoay would not be a hindrance. On other the boy had proved to have a for the country and a for which was not a among those of his own age.
"I would go to a path through the mountains; it may be a long trail," Travis protested.
"You what you may to the north?"
Travis shrugged. "I do not know. How can I? But it will be another way of seeking."
"Tsoay shall go. He older as is proper for the untried, but his free as do yours," Buck replied. "It is in him also, this need to see new places."
"There is this," Jil-Lee got to his feet, "—do not go so far, brother, that you may not easily a way to return. This is a wide land, and it we are but a of men alone——"
"That, too, I know." Travis he read more than one of in Jil-Lee's words.
They were the second day away from the camp, and climbing, when they upon the pass Travis had might exist. Before them an to what appeared to be open country in a Travis now was the thick in the southern valleys. Tsoay pointed with his chin.
"Wide land—good for horses, cattle, ranches...."
But all those the black space them. Travis if there was any native animal which man in place of the horse.
"Do we go down?" Tsoay asked.
From this point Travis no out on the plain, no of any or any of its emptiness. Yet it him. "We go," he decided.
Close as it had looked from the pass, the plain was yet a day and a night, in by turns, ahead of them. It was of the second day that they left the breaks, and the of the open country was high about them. Travis see it where the ahead. Then he was of a buzzing, a noise which until he was to it to its source.
The had been for an patch, with a of out of the of the plain. At one was a buzzing, of glitter-winged which Travis already as eaters. They from their as he approached.
He a which was close to a of recognition. What there was so that he not the of his eyes. Tsoay gave a exclamation, on one for a closer examination, then looked at Travis over his shoulder, his wide, more than a of in his voice.
"Horse dung—and fresh!"
