Travis' was against as he a piece of light-yellow against one at the lines on it in green.
"We are here then ... and the ship there—" His thumb was set on one point of the map, on the other. Buck nodded.
"That is so. Tsoay, Eskelta, Kawaykle, they watch the trails. There is the pass, two other men can come on foot. But who can watch the air?"
"The Tatars say the Reds not the 'copter into the mountains. After they they a in a air-current up there. They have only one left and won't it. If only they aren't we can move!" There it was again, that of time, time into a rope to them all.
"You think that the knowledge of our ship will them into the open?"
"That—or about the towers would be the only to out their experts. They send a Tatar party to the ship, sure. But that wouldn't give them the reports they need. No, I think if they a Western Confederation ship was here, it would them—or of them to the odds. We have to catch them in the open. Otherwise, they can up in that ship-fort of theirs."
"And just how do we let them know our ship is here? Send out another party and let them be back?"
"That's our last resource." Travis to at the map. Yes, it would be possible to let the Reds and an Apache party. But there was none in the who were expendable. Surely there was some other way of the with the ship for bait. Capture one of the Reds, let him again, having what they wanted him to see? Again a time-wasting business. And how long would they have to wait and what would they take to up a Red prisoner?
"If the Tatars were dependable...." Buck was aloud.
But that "if" was too big. They not trust the Tatars. No how much the Mongols wanted to in the Reds, as long as they be by the they were useless. Or were they?
"Thought of something?" Buck must have Travis' of expression.
"Suppose a Tatar saw our ship and then was up by a Red and they got the out of him?"
"Do you think any would to let himself be up again? And if he did, wouldn't the Reds also be able to learn that he had been set up for the trap?"
"An prisoner?" Travis suggested.
Now Buck was the possibilities of such a scheme. And Travis' own rose a little. The idea was full of holes, but it be out. Suppose they capture, say, Menlik, him here as a prisoner, let him think they were about to kill him of that attack in the foothills. Then let him escape, him to a point where he be into the hands of the Reds? Very chancy, but it just might work. Travis was a now, since his one with the had paid off.
The he had then had cost him two wounds, one of which might have been if Jil-Lee's project-sponsored medical had not been to hand. But it had also Travis one of the again, with his people to to his the tower treasury.
"The girl—the Tatar girl!"
At Travis did not Buck's ejaculation.
"We the girl," the other elaborated, "let her escape, then her to where they'll her up. Might her in the ship to with."
Kaydessa? Though something him at that selection for the leading role in their drama, Travis see the of Buck's choice. Woman-stealing was an among cultures. The Tatars themselves had that way in the past, just as the Apache of old had taken into their wickiups. Yes, for to a woman would be a natural act, as such by the Reds. For the same woman to to and be by her also was reasonable. And for such a woman, cut off from her kin, to toward the Red settlement as the only of her enemies—logical all the way!
"She would have to be well frightened," Travis with reluctance.
"That can be done for us—"
Travis at Buck with annoyance. He would not allow out of their common past to be played with Kaydessa. But Buck had something very different from old-time in mind.
"Three days ago, while you were still on your back, Deklay and I to the ship—"
"Deklay?"
"You him openly, so he must his in his own sight. And the has another or challenge," Buck replied. "Therefore he will continue to push for in another way. And now that he has your and we must the Reds, not from them, he is to take the trail—too eager. So we returned to the ship to make another search for weapons——"
"There were none there those we had...."
"Nor now either. But we something else." Buck paused and Travis was out of his with the problem at hand by a note in the other's voice. It was as if Buck had come upon something he not the right to describe.
"First," Buck continued, "there was this thing there, near where we Dr. Ruthven. It was something like a man ... but all hair——"
"The ape-things! The ape-things from the other worlds! What else did you see?" Travis had the map. His gave him a painful as he at Buck's sleeve. The space rovers—did they still here somewhere? Had they come to the ship on the pattern of their own but by Terrans?
"Nothing tracks, a of them, in every open and hole. I think there must have been a pack of the things."
"What killed the one?"
Buck wet his lips. "I think—fear...." His voice a little, almost apologetically, and Travis stared.
"The ship is changed. Inside, there is something wrong. When you walk the your skin crawls, you think there is something you. You things, see from the of your eyes.... When you turn, there's nothing, nothing at all! And the higher you climb into the ship, the it is. I tell you, Travis, have I anything like it before!"
"It was a ship of many dead," Travis him. Had the age-old Apache of the been by the Redax into an phobia—to such a level-headed man as Buck?
"No, at that, too, was my thought. Then I that it was not near that where we our dead, but higher, in the Redax cabin. I think the machine is still running, but in a way—so that it not old memories of our now, but into being all the which have us through the dark of the ages. I tell you, Travis, when I came out of that place Deklay was leading me by the hand as if I were a child. And he was as a man who will be warm again. There is an there our understanding. I think that this Tatar girl, were she only to there a very time, would be well frightened—so that any scientist her later would know there was a to be explored."
"The ape-things—could they have to the Redax?" Travis wondered. To with the was pure folly. But they had been on two of the of the old civilization, and Ashe had that they might the of a once species.
"That is possible. If so, they a which them out and killed one of them. The ship is a place now."
"But for us to use the girl...." Travis had the logic in Buck's suggestion, but now he differed. If the of the ship was as as Buck said, to Kaydessa there, temporarily, was still wrong.
"She need not long. Suppose we should do this: We shall enter with her and then allow the we would to overcome us. We run, her alone. When she left the ship, we then take up the chase, her to the country she knows. Within the ship we would be with her and see she did not too long."
Travis see a good in that plan. There was one thing he would on—if Kaydessa was to be in that ship, he himself would be one of the "captors." He said as much, and Buck his as final.
They a party to the to the north, to watch and wait their of capture. Travis to his feet, to be to move when the moment came.
Five days later he was able to the which the ship. With him were Jil-Lee, Lupe, and Manulito. They satisfied themselves that the had had no visitors since Buck and Deklay; there was no that the ape-things had returned.
"From here," Travis said, "the ship doesn't look too bad, almost as if it might be able to take off again."
"It might lift," Jil-Lee to the the of the globe—"about that far. The on this are intact."
"What would were the Reds to and try to again?" Manulito aloud.
Travis was by a idea, one just as wild as the other he had had since landing on Topaz, but one to be and explored—not without consideration. Suppose power to the ship and then it up? With the Red on at the time.... But he was no engineer, he had no idea any part of the might or might not work again.
"They are not fools; a close look would tell them it is a wreck," Jil-Lee countered.
Travis walked on. Not too ahead a yellow-brown shape moved out of the brush, stiff-legged in his path, the ship and in a of sound. Whatever moved or in that was up by the of the coyote, at this distance.
"On!" Travis around the animal. With one step and then another, it him. There was a from the brush, and a second appeared. Naginlta Travis, but Nalik'ideyu to approach the globe.
Travis the ship closely, trying to the of its interior. To turn the whole into a trap—was it possible? How had Ashe said the Redax worked? Something about high-frequency brain and nerve centers.
What if one were from those rays? That tear in the side—he himself must have through that the night they crashed. And the was not too from the space lock. Near the lock was a compartment. And if it had not been jammed, or its crushed, they might have something. He to Jil-Lee.
"Give me a hand—up there."
"Why?"
"I want to see if the space are intact."
Jil-Lee Travis with open bewilderment, but Manulito pushed forward. "We do not need those to walk here, Travis. This air we can breathe—"
"Not for the air, and not in the open." Travis at a pace. "Those may be in more than one——"
"Against a mixed-up Redax broadcast, you mean!" Jil-Lee exclaimed. "Yes, but you here, brother. This is a climb, and you are not yet strong."
Travis was to to that, waiting as Manulito and Lupe up to the tear and entered. At least Buck and Deklay's had them and they would be prepared for the the interior.
But when they returned, them the space suit, men were pale, the of on their foreheads, their hands shaking. Lupe sat on the ground Travis.
"Evil spirits," he said, to this modern the old name. "Truly and walk in there."
Manulito had spread the on the ground and was it with a which spoke of familiarity.
"This is unharmed," he reported. "Ready to wear."
The were all for size, Travis knew. And this a slender, medium-sized man. It would fit him, Travis Fox. But Manulito was already the with ease.
"I shall try it out," he announced. And Travis, the climb to the entrance of the ship, had to agree that the test should be out by someone more at the moment.
Sealed into the suit, with the locked in place, the Apache into the globe. The only of with him was the rope he had about him, and if he above the level, he would have to that behind.
In the moments they saw no of along the rope. After fifty slowly, Travis gave it a jerk, to it within. So Manulito had it there and was to the cabin.
They to wait with what patience they muster. Naginlta, up and a good from the ship, at intervals, the each time by his upslope.
"I don't like it—" Travis off when the appeared again at the break. Moving slowly in his clothing, Manulito the ground, with the catch of his and then stood, taking deep, lung-filling of air.
"Well?" Travis demanded.
"I see no ghosts," Manulito said, grinning. "This is ghost-proof!" He his hand against the over his chest. "There is also this—from what I know of these ships—some of the still work. I think this be into a trap. We the Reds in and then...." His hand moved in a quick flip.
"But we don't know anything about the engines," Travis replied.
"No? Listen—you, Fox, are not the only one to useful knowledge." Manulito had his grin. "Do you think we are just the those big at the project us to be? They have played a on us with their Redax. So, we can play a tricks, too. Me—? I to M.I.T., or is that one of the you no longer remember, Fox?"
Travis hastily. He had that until this very minute. From the beginning, the Apache team had been and screened, not only for potential, which was their value to the project, but also for skills. Just as Travis' in had been one advantage, so had Manulito's a valuable, though different, contribution. If at the Redax, used without warning, had that training, the were now fading.
"You can do something, then?" he asked eagerly.
"I can try. There is a to the at least. And that is where they would and pry. Working in this will be tough. How about my trying to up the Redax first?"
"Not until after we use it on our captive," Jil-Lee decided. "Then there would be some time the Reds come——"
"You talk as if they will come," cut in Lupe. "How can you be sure?"
"We can't," Travis agreed. "But we can count on this much, from the past. Once they know that there is a ship here, they will be to it. They cannot an enemy settlement on this of the mountains. That would be, according to their way of thinking, an threat."
Jil-Lee nodded. "That is true. This is a plan, yes, and one in which many may go wrong. But it is also one which all the we know of."
With Lupe's Manulito out of the suit. As he it against a supporting he said:
"I have been of this house in the towers. Suppose we new there...."
Travis hesitated. He still from the of opening the places those walls, to a new peril.
"If we took from there and the fight...." He his and was to see the of on Jil-Lee's face.
"It would be the into Red hands," the other agreed.
"We may have to it we're through," Manulito warned. "Suppose we do some of their into this trap. That isn't going to open up their main defense for us. We may need a than we've seen."
With a return of that he had in the tower, Travis Manulito was speaking sense. They might have to open Pandora's box the end of this campaign.
