"Not to be too hopeful—" McNeil his arm across his face—"so far, so good." After kicking from his path some of the Ross had from the trees they had been felling, he to help his roll another small up to a which was no longer temporary. If there had been any other than the hunters' to upon them, they would have only the of the Beaker traders, one of their posts.
That they were being by the hunters, all three were certain. That there might be other in the forest, they had to assume for their own safety. They might at night, but in the all of the time the of the they were acting.
Barter with the men of the had those people into the of the who had such to for deer and furs. The news of the traders' spread the time they had been here, so that two other had sent men to watch the proceedings.
With the came news which the and studied. Each of them had a list of questions to into their with the if and when that was possible. Although they did not a common speech with the men, were and be learned. In the meantime Ashe with the nearest and of the groups they discovered, going with the men as an to the unknown they must in their search for the Red base.
Ross river water and his own face. "If the Reds aren't traders," he aloud, "what is their cover?"
McNeil shrugged. "A tribe—fishermen—"
"Where would they the and children?"
"The same way they their men—recruit them in our own time. Or in the way of of stress."
Ross set the water jug. "You mean, kill off the men, take over their families?" This was a cold-bloodedness he sickening. Although he had always himself on his toughness, times his at the project he had been by which his in his own and nerve.
"It has been done," McNeil bleakly, "hundreds of times by invaders. In this setup—small family clans, scattered—that move would be very easy."
"They would have to as farmers, not hunters," Ross pointed out. "They couldn't move a around with them."
"All right, so they set up a village. Oh, I see what you mean—there isn't any village around here. Yet they are here, maybe underground."
How right their were they learned that night when Ashe returned, a deer's on his shoulder. Ross him well by now to his preoccupation. "You something?"
"A new set of ghosts," Ashe with a little smile.
"Ghosts!" McNeil upon that. "The Reds like to play the angle, don't they? First the voice of Lurgha and now ghosts. What do these do?"
"They a of of here, a for all hunters. We were a until the for the country. Then Ulffa called us off in a hurry. It that the who goes in there after his reappears, or if he does, it's in a condition, upon by and to death! That's one point."
He sat by the fire and his arms wearily. "The second is a little more for us. A Beaker about twenty miles south of here, as as I can judge, was just a week ago. The message was passed to me I was to be a of the slain——"
McNeil sat up. "Done they were us?"
"Might well be. On the other hand, the may have been just one of precaution."
"The did it?" Ross wanted to know.
"I asked that. No, it that it at night."
"At night?" McNeil whistled.
"Just so." Ashe's was dry. "The do not that way. Either someone up in his briefing, or the Reds are and don't about the rules. But it was the work of tribesmen, or their counterfeits. There is also a about that the do not and that they might of such with all around——"
"Like the Wrath of Lurgha," Ross.
"There is a in this which a to the mind," Ashe agreed.
"I'd say no more for the present," McNeil said. "It is too easy to mistake a friend for a deer and over his afterward."
"That is a which entered my mind times this afternoon," Ashe agreed. "These people are on the surface, but their minds do not work along the same patterns as ours. We try to them, but it takes only one to make it fatal. In the meantime, I think we'd make this place a little more snug, and it might be well to post as as possible."
"How about some of a and into the ourselves?" McNeil asked. "We for the mountains, traveling by night, and Ulffa's would think we were off."
"An idea to keep in mind. The point against it would be the missing bodies. It that the who the Beaker left some very of what to the camp's personnel. And those we can't produce to our trail."
McNeil was not yet convinced. "We might be able to something along that line, too——"
"We may have to nothing," Ross cut in softly. He was close to the of the where they were their hut, his hand on one of the in the they had set up so that day. Ashe was him in an instant.
"What is it?"
Ross's hours of to the of the were his now. "That bird has called from before. It is the one we've for along the river."
Ashe, not at the forest, for the water jug. "Get your supplies," he ordered.
Their leather which iron to keep them going were always at hand. McNeil them from the their half-finished cabin. Again the bird called, its and a long distance. Ross why a careless man would select it for the signal. He the to the donkeys' shelter, through their nose halters. Probably the patient little would to some prowlers, but at least they would have their to escape.
McNeil, his about him to the bags, up the leather as if he were going to the river for water, and came to join Ross. They that they were it off well, that the must appear normal to any in the woods. But either they had some or the enemy was impatient. An out of the night to across the fire, and Ashe death only he had to the flames. His arm out and sent the water in the onto the as he himself rolled in the other direction.
Ross for the with McNeil. Lying on the half-frozen ground, they started to work their way to the river bank where the open area would make less possible.
"Ashe?" he and McNeil's warm on his as he replied:
"He'll make it the other way! He's the best we have for this of job."
They a worm's progress, twice lying, with in hand, while they to a which the of one of the attackers. Both times Ross was to and try to cut off the stranger, but he the impulse. He had learned a of himself that would have been for him a months earlier.
The of the river was through the of which sometimes into the flood. In this country winter still in places with cups of snow, and there was a bite in the wind and water. Ross rose to his with an as a cut through the night. He around toward the camp, only to McNeil's hand on his forearm.
"That was a donkey," McNeil urgently. "Come on, let's go to that we discovered!"
They south, now to trot, to the ground. The river was with which were only now to subside, but two days they had noticed a at one spot. By that across the bed, they might to put water them and the unknown enemy tonight. It would give them a space, though Ross privately from the of into the stream. He had good-sized trees along in the only yesterday. And to make such a in the dark....
From McNeil's a which Ross had last in Britain—the of a wolf. The was answered later from downstream.
"Ashe!"
They their way along the of the water with care, until they came upon Ashe at last, so much a part of his that Ross started when the he had taken for a to join them. Together they the river and south again to for the mountains. It was then that struck.
Ross no this time. Though he was on guard, he the approach of the man who him from behind. One moment he had been McNeil and Ashe; the next moment was black nothingness.
He was aware of a of pain which his and then in his head. Forcing open his eyes, the of light was like a point directly into his head, his pain to agony. He his hand up to his and there.
"Assha—" He he called that aloud, but he did not his own voice. They were in a valley; a had him out of the bushes. Wolf? No, the was dead, but then it came alive again to on a river bank.
Ross his open once more, the pain of he as sunshine. He his to avoid the glare. It was hard to focus, but he to himself. There was some why it was necessary to move, to away. But away from what and where? When Ross to think he only see pictures which had no connection.
Then a moving object his very narrow of vision, him and a thing he was a tree trunk. A four-footed with a red from its jaws. It came toward him stiff-legged, low in its throat, and at his barking in of sound.
The noise his so much that Ross closed his eyes. Then a of liquid into his him to make a and he saw, over him in a upside-down way, a which he from the past.
Hands were on him and the with which he was moved sent Ross into the dark once again. When he for the second time it was night and the pain in his was dulled. He put out his hands and that he on a of robes, and was by one.
"Assha—" Again he that name. But it was not Assha who came in answer to his call. The woman who him with a cup in her hand had in which by firelight. Ross he had her before, but again where and when him. She a arm under his and him while the world about. The of the cup was pressed to his lips, and he which in his and a fire in his insides. Then he was left to himself once again and in of his pain and he slept.
How many days he in the of Ulffa, by the chief's wife, Ross it hard to reckon. It was Frigga who had the into for a man they almost when they him, and who nursed Ross to life with knowledge through a hundred those wise who were the doctors and of these peoples.
Why Frigga had with the at all Ross learned when he was able to up and his into some of order. The of the for knowledge. That same which had her to with herbs, had her Ross a challenge to her skill. When she that he would live she to learn from him all he had to give.
Ulffa and the men of the might have the metal of the with and desire, but Frigga wanted more than goods. She wanted the of the making of such cloth as the wore, she learn of their and the lands through which they had come. She Ross with questions which he answered as best he could, for he in an odd where only the present had any reality. The past was and away, and while he was now and then aware that he had something to do, he it easily.
The and his men the half-built station after the had withdrawn, with them a of loot—a razor, two knives, some fishhooks, a length of cloth which Frigga appropriated. Ross this indifferently, making no upon it. His in about him was often out by which him on his bed, and for hours or full days.
He that the had been in of an attack from the same who had out the post. But at last their returned with the that the enemy had gone south.
There was one of which Ross was not aware but which might have Ashe and McNeil. Ross Murdock had died under that which had left him the river. The man Frigga had to and a slow was Rossa of the Beaker people. This same Rossa nursed a for against those who had him and his kinsmen, a which the family who had him well understand.
There was the same old pushing him to try his now, to keep to his when they were unsteady. His was gone, but Ross hours another, and he his copper for the best dozen in Ulffa's camp. The pin from his he presented to Frigga with all his gratitude.
Now that his was he not easy in the camp. He was to leave, though the on his were still to the touch. Ulffa planned a southward, and Rossa took the with the tribesmen.
He with the when they at the of the land. Ross, his own mind and taken over by his Beaker cover, too. Yet he not give up, and the others left him there, his on the heights, and by more than the which still came and with painful regularity. In the what he sought—a something his brain told him that over and over—but the were taboo, and he should not into them.
How long he might have there if he had not come upon the trail, Ross did not know. But on the day after the of Ulffa's left, a of two trees pointed out a woodsman's on a third tree trunk. The two of Ross's memory together for an as he that cut. He that it marked a and he pushed on, a second cut and then a third. Convinced that these would lead him into the unknown territory, Ross's to the of his briefing.
There were other that this was an often-traveled route: a of and with stone, a of steps cut in the on a slope. Ross moved warily, to any sound. He might not be an expert woodsman, but he was learning fast, the his false memories now the ones.
That night he no fire, into the of a to sleep, once to the call of a and another time at the crash of a tree to wind.
In the he was about to climb to the he had left the night when he saw five bearded, fur-clad men looking much the same as Ulffa's people. Ross the earth and them pass out of he followed.
All that day he an up-and-down the small band, sometimes of them as they a well ahead or stopped to eat. It was late when he to the top of a and into a valley.
There was a town in that valley, houses of a stockade. He had like it before, yet it had a quality as if it were not as as it appeared.
Ross rested his on his arms and that town and the people moving in it. Some were fur-clad hunters, but others differently. He started up with a little at the of one of the men who had walked so from one house to the next; surely he was a Beaker trader!
His with every moment he watched, but it was the he in that town which him and not any that he, himself, was in danger. He had to his to see when out of a rope sang through the air, settling about his with a which not only the air from his but his arms tight to his body.
