Dane his morosely. Nymani's operations with had been hard to take, but he had them without himself the Khatkans, who appeared to such a as just another travel incident. Now, with Tau's the of the after affects, the Terran was time to upon his own and the that he might now prove a on the whole party the next morning.
"That's queer...."
Dane was out of the of his to see the on his their of canteens, the of water to the for a closer inspection.
"What's the matter?"
"We must have with a hard there. Some of these pills are powder! Have to about the to add." With the of his knife Tau a amount of into each waiting canteen. "That should do it. But if the water tastes a little bitter, don't let it you."
Bitter water, Dane thought, trying to his still toes, was going to be the least of his in the morning. But he that his should go on at daybreak, and he would keep on his as long as the others did, no how much it cost him.
And when they set out after daybreak, wanting to move as as they the hours when they must rest, the going was not too bad. Dane's were to the touch, but he along at the of the with only Nymani playing him.
Jungle them and to swing, their path. Dane took his turn with the at that chore, that the of their way through that of them to a he match—if not in comfort, then by willpower.
But the were not the only one on Khatka. Within an hour Captain Jellico and speaking his mind in the native of five different while Tau and Nymani as a team with knives. They were not the spaceman, but they came near to that in places as they a choice selection of tree out of his arm and shoulder. The captain had been to and into the of a very bush.
Dane a tree for of wild life, and then rested his him and it as a protecting he sat down. These trees were not the of the true forests, but which had been into by vines. Brilliant of flowers were of color, and the life was too abundant. Dane to his and for the best. At the moment he why anyone would want to visit Khatka, let alone pay some for the privilege. Though he also that the for a paying client might be on different lines from their own present trek.
How a his way through this? With the playing into the bargain! Jellico that the were off, yet the captain had Asaki's lead without question, so he must trust the Ranger's craft. But Dane they were clear on the again.
Time had little meaning in that green gloom. But when they through to meet again, the sun said it was well into the after part of the day. They for a under the of one of the last trees.
"Amazing!" Jellico, his arm in a across his chest, came down-slope from the higher point where he had been using the lenses. "We across and cut off about ten miles by that jog. Now I all that I've of your people's ability to and not their in 'riding beams,' sir. With the out, I'll admit I've been a healthy set of doubts."
Asaki laughed. "Captain, I do not question your ability to from world to world, or how you have learned to set up with and non-humans alike. To each his own mystery. On Khatka every boy he a man must learn to the jungle, and with no to help him, only what in here." He touched his thumb to his forehead. "So through we have our instincts. Those who did not, also did not live to father others who might have had the same lack. We are who can on a scent, and we are who have than a our own bodies."
"Now we take to again?" Tau the way them critically.
"Not at this hour. That sun on the can cook a man's skin were he to touch any rock. We wait...."
Waiting for the Khatkans was a to sleep. They up on their light blankets. But the three were restless. Dane would have liked to have taken off his boots, but he not replace them; and he tell from the way the captain his position that Jellico was in pain too. Tau sat quietly, at nothing Dane see, unless it was a tall out of the like a pointing skyward.
"What color is that rock?"
Surprised, Dane gave the closer attention. To him it was the same color as most of the other rocks, a black which in lights appeared to a film.
"Black, or maybe dark brown?"
Tau looked past him to Jellico. The captain nodded.
"I'd agree with that."
Tau his hands over his for a moment and his moved as if he were counting. Then he took his hands away and up-slope. Dane the medic's slowly. "Nothing but black or brown?" Tau pressed.
"No." Jellico supported his arm upon his knees, forward, as upon the as if he it to assume some more appearance.
"Queer," Tau said to himself, and then added briskly, "You're right, of course. That sun can play with one's eyes."
Dane to watch the rock. Maybe play tricks, but he see nothing odd about that lump. And since the captain asked no questions of Tau, he did not want to either.
It was a half-hour later, and the and Jellico had to the quiet, the heat, and their own fatigue, when Dane did a movement up-slope. The in his was now that he had nothing to his mind but his own troubles, and he was the rock.
Was that what Tau had earlier? That quick movement around the of the pillar? But if so, why the question of color? There it was again! And now, all his attention on that one point, the Terran out the of a head—a to be something out of Lumbrilo's sorcerer's imagination. Had Dane not its like among the tri-dee prints in Captain Jellico's collection, he would have that his were playing tricks.
It was a bullet-shaped head, by two out-sized ears, the hair-tufted pointed of which well above the top of the skull. Round were set in pits. The mouth was a from which a tongue, though the of that was very close in color to the against which it rested.
Dane had no that the was upon the small camp. Having of those semi-intelligent animals—the most native of Khatka—most of which were with their more characteristics, Dane was alarmed. That be an of some pack. And a pack of apes, if able to their prey, were opponents.
Asaki stirred, sat up. And that above to the Chief Ranger's every move.
"Above ... by the ... to the right...." Dane his voice close to a whisper. When he saw the of across the Khatkan's shoulders, he that the other had and understood.
Only, if Asaki had the ape, he did not his knowledge. The Khatkan got to his feet. Then one of those Nymani into the of the wilderness-trained man.
Dane his hand about the of the tree and touched Jellico, the captain's open with a awareness. Asaki up his needler. Weapon in hand, he and almost in one movement. It was the Dane had seen.
The away from the rock, and then to one as its body, somehow in its to the form, away, to down-slope.
Though the had not had a to give tongue, there came a from above, a coughing, deep-throated hawking. Down the a white ball, past the of the ape, up into the air, to and open a away.
"Back!" With one arm Asaki sent Jellico, his nearest neighbor, into the jungle. Then the Chief Ranger a of into the of the ball. A shrill, sweet as red motes, as copper in the sunlight, on too fast to be seen.
The of the into nothing. But no to stop all the army from it, mad, to any warm-blooded distance. The men themselves into the brush, in the thick of the vegetable on the ground, its plaster over their in haste.
Red-hot fire, than any of the Dane had the night before, his shoulders. He rolled on his back, himself along, to kill the fire-wasp and the with mold. Cries of pain told him that he was not the only sufferer, as all hands into the under them and it over their and heads.
"Apes...." That got through to the men on the floor. True to their nature, the apes, now downhill, were their challenges, their attack. And it was only that of their which saved their victims.
The came forward, erect, at a run. The two, close to six feet, under fire from Asaki's needler. A third somehow escaped, to the left, and came at an toward Dane. The Terran free his as that wide to and the of the creature's him gasp.
A at him eagerly, from his slime-covered just as he the up. Foul in his and he as the of the against him, cut in by the weapon. To Dane's the still for him, the still as he rolled free of the and somehow got to his feet.
The of a blaster, of two blasters, out the of the as Dane his fire ray, set his against a tree and prepared to it out. He fired, saw a smaller and more enemy go screeching. Then there were none left on their feet, though some on the ground themselves forward, still to the men.
Dane a fire-wasp from his leg. He was of the support of the tree at his as the of the ape's blood him from level down, and the on the ground, his churn.
When he his retching, he straightened. To his he saw that all the others were on their feet, unharmed. But Tau, of the spaceman, and started for him.
"Dane! What did they do?"
His junior laughed a little hysterically. "Not mine...." He with a of at his and on into the sunlight.
Nymani them a foam-flecked a where the the of worms. They eagerly, themselves and then their while Tau the of fire-wasp stings. There was little he do to the and pain, until Asaki produced a reed-like plant which, in sections, a liquid that on the skin as a gum—the native remedy. So, and plastered, they away from the water and prepared to the night in a two rocks, not as as the but a of sorts.
"And credit-happy space pay a for an like this!" Tau bitterly, well so that a of his would not come in with the him.
"Hardly for this," Jellico replied, and Dane saw Nymani one-sidedly, his other and painted purple.
"We do not always and fire-wasps in the same day," the Chief Ranger. "Also, guests at the wear belts."
Jellico snorted. "I don't think you'd any from your clients otherwise! What do we meet tomorrow? A of on stampede, or something more and deadly?"
Nymani got up and walked a little way from their shelter. He down-slope and Dane saw his as they had when he had the cave.
"Something is dead," he said slowly. "A very large something. Or else—"
Asaki to join his men. He gave a and Nymani on the side.
"What is it?" Jellico asked.
"It might be many things. There is one I it is not," was the Chief Ranger's reply. "I will a labbla—there was fresh at the stream." He set off along their to return a hour later, the of his kill across one shoulder. He was it when Nymani back.
"Well?"
"Death pit," the Hunter.
"Poachers?" Jellico inquired.
Nymani nodded. Asaki his task, but there was a in his dark as he with sure and expert strokes. Then he at the the rocks.
"I, too, would see," he told Nymani.
Jellico arose, and Dane, interested, followed. Some five minutes later none of them needed the native of to the presence of some ahead. The odor of was almost in the air. And it until they on the of a pit. Dane hurriedly. This was as as the of the apes. But the captain and the two Khatkans the left by the poachers.
"Glam, graz, hoodra," Jellico commented. "Tusks and hides—the full line of stuff."
Asaki, his bleak, from the pit. "Day old calves, old ones, females—all together. They kill and those they do not choose to pelt."
"Trail—" Nymani pointed eastward. "Leads to Mygra swamp."
"The swamps!" Asaki was shaken. "They must be mad!"
"Or know more about this country than your men do," Jellico corrected.
"If can enter Mygra, then we can follow!"
But not now, Dane silently. Certainly Asaki did not that they were to into the Khatkan had already death traps!
