Transcriber's Note:

 This etext was produced from Venture Science Fiction, July 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. 

 [Illustration: Frontispiece]

 _Evil men had stolen his treasure, and Raud set out with his deer rifle and his great dog Brave to catch the thieves before they could reach the Starfolk. That the men had negatron pistols meant little--Raud was the Keeper. .. . _

 THE KEEPER

 by H. BEAM PIPER

 * * * * *

When he heard the deer crashing through brush and scuffling the deadleaves, he stopped and stood motionless in the path. He watched thembolt down the slope from the right and cross in front of him, wishinghe had the rifle, and when the last white tail vanished in thegray-brown woods he drove the spike of the ice-staff into thestiffening ground and took both hands to shift the weight of thepack. If he'd had the rifle, he could have shot only one of them. Asit was, they were unfrightened, and he knew where to find them in themorning. 

Ahead, to the west and north, low clouds massed; the white front ofthe Ice-Father loomed clear and sharp between them and the blue of thedistant forests. It would snow, tonight. If it stopped at daybreak, hewould have good tracking, and in any case, it would be easier to getthe carcasses home over snow. He wrenched loose the ice-staff andstarted forward again, following the path that wound between and amongand over the irregular mounds and hillocks. It was still an hour'swalk to Keeper's House, and the daylight was fading rapidly. 

Sometimes, when he was not so weary and in so much haste, he wouldloiter here, wondering about the ancient buildings and thelong-vanished people who had raised them. There had been no woods atall, then; nothing but great houses like mountains, piling up towardthe sky, and the valley where he meant to hunt tomorrow had been anarm of the sea that was now a three days' foot-journey away. Some saidthat the cities had been destroyed and the people killed in wars--bigwars, not squabbles like the fights between sealing-companies fromdifferent villages. He didn't think so, himself. It was more likelythat they had all left their homes and gone away in starships when theIce-Father had been born and started pushing down out of the north. There had been many starships, then. When he had been a boy, the oldmen had talked about a long-ago time when there had been hundreds ofthem visible in the sky, every morning and evening. But that had beenlong ago indeed. Starships came but seldom to this world, now. Thisworld was old and lonely and poor. Like poor lonely old Raud theKeeper. 

He felt angry to find himself thinking like that. Never pity yourself, Raud; be proud. That was what his father had always taught him: "Beproud, for you are the Keeper's son, and when I am gone, you will bethe Keeper after me. But in your pride, be humble, for what you willkeep is the Crown. "

The thought of the Crown, never entirely absent from his mind, wakenedthe anxiety that always slept lightly if at all. He had been away allday, and there were so many things that could happen. The path seemedlonger, after that; the landmarks farther apart. Finally, he came outon the edge of the steep bank, and looked down across the brook to thefamiliar low windowless walls and sharp-ridged roof of Keeper's House;and when he came, at last, to the door, and pulled the latchstring, heheard the dogs inside--the soft, coughing bark of Brave, and theanxious little whimper of Bold--and he knew that there was nothingwrong in Keeper's House. 

The room inside was lighted by a fist-sized chunk of lumicon, hung ina net bag of thongs from the rafter over the table. It was old--castoff by some rich Southron as past its best brilliance, it had been oldwhen he had bought it from Yorn Nazvik the Trader, and that had beenyears ago. Now its light was as dim and yellow as firelight. He'd haveto replace it soon, but this trip he had needed new cartridges for thebig rifle. A man could live in darkness more easily than he could livewithout cartridges. 

The big black dogs were rising from their bed of deerskins on thestone slab that covered the crypt in the far corner. They did not cometo meet him, but stayed in their place of trust, greeting him withanxious, eager little sounds. 

"Good boys, " he said. "Good dog, Brave; good dog, Bold. Old Keeper'shome again. Hungry?"

They recognized that word, and whined. He hung up the ice-staff on thepegs by the door, then squatted and got his arms out of thepack-straps. 

"Just a little now; wait a little, " he told the dogs. "Keeper'll getsomething for you. "

He unhooked the net bag that held the lumicon and went to the ladder, climbing to the loft between the stone ceiling and the steep snow-shedroof; he cut down two big chunks of smoked wild-ox beef--the dogsliked that better than smoked venison--and climbed down. 

He tossed one chunk up against the ceiling, at the same time shouting:"Bold! Catch!" Bold leaped forward, sinking his teeth into the meat asit was still falling, shaking and mauling it. Brave, still on thecrypt-slab, was quivering with hunger and eagerness, but he remainedin place until the second chunk was tossed and he was ordered to takeit. Then he, too, leaped and caught it, savaging it in mimicry of akill. For a while, he stood watching them growl and snarl and teartheir meat, great beasts whose shoulders came above his own waist. While they lived to guard it, the Crown was safe. Then he crossed tothe hearth, scraped away the covering ashes, piled on kindling andlogs and fanned the fire alight. He lifted the pack to the table andunlaced the deerskin cover. 

Cartridges in plastic boxes of twenty, long and thick; shot for theduck-gun, and powder and lead and cartridge-primers; fills for thefire-lighter; salt; needles; a new file. And the deerskin bag oftrade-tokens. He emptied them on the table and counted them--tokens, and half-tokens and five-tokens, and even one ten-token. There werealways less in the bag, after each trip to the village. The Southronspaid less and less, each year, for furs and skins, and asked more andmore for what they had to sell. 

He put away the things he had brought from the village, and wasconsidering whether to open the crypt now and replace the bag oftokens, when the dogs stiffened, looking at the door. They got totheir feet, neck-hairs bristling, as the knocking began. 

He tossed the token-bag onto the mantel and went to the door, the dogsfollowing and standing ready as he opened it. 

The snow had started, and now the ground was white except under theevergreens. Three men stood outside the door, and over their shouldershe could see an airboat grounded in the clearing in front of thehouse. 

"You are honored, Raud Keeper, " one of them began. "Here are strangerswho have come to talk to you. Strangers from the Stars!"

He recognized the speaker, in sealskin boots and deerskin trousers andhooded overshirt like his own--Vahr Farg's son, one of the villagepeople. His father was dead, and his woman was the daughter of GorthSledmaker, and he was a house-dweller with his woman's father. Aworthless youth, lazy and stupid and said to be a coward. Still, guests were guests, even when brought by the likes of Vahr Farg's son. He looked again at the airboat, and remembered seeing it, that day, made fast to the top-deck of Yorn Nazvik's trading-ship, the Issa. 

"Enter and be welcome; the house is yours, and all in it that is mineto give. " He turned to the dogs. "Brave, Bold; go watch. "

Obediently, they trotted over to the crypt and lay down. He stoodaside; Vahr entered, standing aside also, as though he were the host, inviting his companions in. They wore heavy garments of woven clothand boots of tanned leather with hard heels and stiff soles, and asthey came in, each unbuckled and laid aside a belt with a holsterednegatron pistol. One was stocky and broad-shouldered, with red hair;the other was slender, dark haired and dark eyed, with a face assmooth as a woman's. Everybody in the village had wondered about them. They were not of Yorn Nazvik's crew, but passengers on the _Issa_. 

"These are Empire people, from the Far Stars, " Vahr informed him, naming their names. Long names, which meant nothing; certainly theywere not names the Southrons from the Warm Seas bore. "And this isRaud the Keeper, with whom your honors wish to speak. "

"Keeper's House is honored. I'm sorry that I have not food prepared;if you can excuse me while I make some ready. .. . "

"You think these noblemen from the Stars would eat your swill?" Vahrhooted. "Crazy old fool, these are--"

The slim man pivoted on his heel; his open hand caught Vahr just belowthe ear and knocked him sprawling. It must have been some kind oftrick-blow. That or else the slim stranger was stronger than helooked. 

"Hold your miserable tongue!" he told Vahr, who was getting to hisfeet. "We're guests of Raud the Keeper, and we'll not have himinsulted in his own house by a cur like you!"

The man with red hair turned. "I am ashamed. We should not havebrought this into your house; we should have left it outside. " Hespoke the Northland language well, "It will honor us to share yourfood, Keeper. "

"Yes, and see here, " the younger man said, "we didn't know you'd bealone. Let us help you. Dranigo's a fine cook, and I'm not bad, myself. "

He started to protest, then let them have their way. After all, aguest's women helped the woman of the house, and as there was no womanin Keeper's House, it was not unfitting for them to help him. 

"Your friend's name is Dranigo?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but I didn'tcatch yours. "

"I don't wonder; fool mouthed it so badly I couldn't understand itmyself. It's Salvadro. "

They fell to work with him, laying out eating-tools--there were justenough to go around--and hunting for dishes, of which there were not. Salvadro saved that situation by going out and bringing some in fromthe airboat. He must have realized that the lumicon over the table wasthe only light beside the fire in the house, for he was carrying aglobe of the luminous plastic with him when he came in, grumblingabout how dark it had gotten outside. It was new and brilliant, andthe light hurt Raud's eyes, at first. 

"Are you truly from the Stars?" he asked, after the food was on thetable and they had begun to eat. "Neither I nor any in the villagehave seen anybody from the Stars before. "

The big man with the red hair nodded. "Yes. We are from Dremna. "

Why, Dremna was the Great World, at the middle of everything! Dremnawas the Empire. People from Dremna came to the cities of Awster andfabulous Antark as Southron traders from the Warm Seas came to thevillages of the Northfolk. He stammered something about that. 

"Yes. You see, we. .. . " Dranigo began. "I don't know the word for it, in your language, but we're people whose work it is to learn things. Not from other people or from books, but new things, that nobody elseknows. We came here to learn about the long-ago times on this world, like the great city that was here and is now mounds of stone andearth. Then, when we go back to Dremna, we will tell other peoplewhat we have found out. "

Vahr Farg's son, having eaten his fill, was fidgeting on his stool, looking contemptuously at the strangers and their host. He thoughtthey were fools to waste time learning about people who had died longago. So he thought the Keeper was a fool, to guard a worthless oldpiece of junk. 

Raud hesitated for a moment, then said: "I have a very ancient thing, here in this house. It was worn, long ago, by great kings. Theirnames, and the name of their people, are lost, but the Crown remains. It was left to me as a trust by my father, who was Keeper before meand to whom it was left by his father, who was Keeper in his time. Have you heard of it?"

Dranigo nodded. "We heard of it, first of all, on Dremna, " he said. "The Empire has a Space Navy base, and observatories and relaystations, on this planet. Space Navy officers who had been herebrought the story back; they heard it from traders from the Warm Seas, who must have gotten it from people like Yorn Nazvik. Would you showit to us, Keeper? It was to see the Crown that we came here. "

Raud got to his feet, and saw, as he unhooked the lumicon, that he wastrembling. "Yes, of course. It is an honor. It is an ancient andwonderful thing, but I never thought that it was known on Dremna. " Hehastened across to the crypt. 

The dogs looked up as he approached. They knew that he wanted to liftthe cover, but they were comfortable and had to be coaxed to leave it. He laid aside the deerskins. The stone slab was heavy, and he had tostrain to tilt it up. He leaned it against the wall, then picked upthe lumicon and went down the steps into the little room below, opening the wooden chest and getting out the bundle wrapped inbearskin. He brought it up again and carried it to the table, fromwhich Dranigo and Salvadro were clearing the dishes. 

"Here it is, " he said, untying the thongs. "I do not know how old itis. It was old even before the Ice-Father was born. "

That was too much for Vahr. "See, I told you he's crazy!" he cried. "The Ice-Father has been here forever. Gorth Sledmaker says so, " headded, as though that settled it. 

"Gorth Sledmaker's a fool. He thinks the world began in the time ofhis grandfather. " He had the thongs untied, and spread the bearskin, revealing the blackened leather box, flat on the bottom and domed atthe top. "How long ago do you think it was that the Ice-Father wasborn?" he asked Salvadro and Dranigo. 

"Not more than two thousand years, " Dranigo said. "The glaciationhadn't started in the time of the Third Empire. There is no record ofthis planet during the Fourth, but by the beginning of the FifthEmpire, less than a thousand years ago, things here were very much asthey are now. "

"There are other worlds which have Ice-Fathers, " Salvadro explained. "They are all worlds having one pole or the other in open water, surrounded by land. When the polar sea is warmed by water from thetropics, snow falls on the lands around, and more falls in winter thanmelts in summer, and so is an Ice-Father formed. Then, when the polarsea is all frozen, no more snow falls, and the Ice-Father melts fasterthan it grows, and finally vanishes. And then, when warm water comesinto the polar sea again, more snow falls, and it starts over again. On a world like this, it takes fifteen or twenty thousand years fromone Ice-Father to the next. "

"I never heard that there had been another Ice-Father, before thisone. But then, I only know the stories told by the old men, when I wasa boy. I suppose that was before the first people came in starships tothis world. "

The two men of Dremna looked at one another oddly, and he wondered, ashe unfastened the brass catches on the box, if he had said somethingfoolish, and then he had the box open, and lifted out the Crown. Hewas glad, now, that Salvadro had brought in the new lumicon, as he putthe box aside and set the Crown on the black bearskin. The goldencirclet and the four arches of gold above it were clean and bright, and the jewels were splendid in the light. Salvadro and Dranigo werelooking at it wide-eyed. Vahr Farg's son was open-mouthed. 

"Great Universe! Will you look at that diamond on the top!" Salvadrowas saying. 

"That's not the work of any Galactic art-period, " Dranigo declared. "That thing goes back to the Pre-Interstellar Era. " And for a while hetalked excitedly to Salvadro. 

"Tell me, Keeper, " Salvadro said at length, "how much do you knowabout the Crown? Where did it come from; who made it; who were thefirst Keepers?"

He shook his head. "I only know what my father told me, when I was aboy. Now I am an old man, and some things I have forgotten. But myfather was Runch, Raud's son, who was the son of Yorn, the son ofRaud, the son of Runch. " He went back six more generations, thenfaltered and stopped. "Beyond that, the names have been lost. But I doknow that for a long time the Crown was in a city to the north ofhere, and before that it was brought across the sea from anothercountry, and the name of that country was Brinn. "

Dranigo frowned, as though he had never heard the name before. "Brinn. " Salvadro's eyes widened. "Brinn, Dranigo! Do you think thatmight be Britain?"

Dranigo straightened, staring, "It might be! Britain was a greatnation, once; the last nation to join the Terran Federation, in theThird Century Pre-Interstellar. And they had a king, and a crown witha great diamond. .. . "

"The story of where it was made, " Rand offered, "or who made it, hasbeen lost. I suppose the first people brought it to this world whenthey came in starships. "

"It's more wonderful than that, Keeper, " Salvadro said. "It was madeon this world, before the first starship was built. This world isTerra, the Mother-World; didn't you know that, Keeper? This is theworld where Man was born. "

He hadn't known that. Of course, there had to be a world like that, but a great world in the middle of everything, like Dremna. Not thisold, forgotten world. 

"It's true, Keeper, " Dranigo told him. He hesitated slightly, thencleared his throat. "Keeper, you're young no longer, and some day youmust die, as your father and his father did. Who will care for theCrown then?"

Who, indeed? His woman had died long ago, and she had given him nosons, and the daughters she had given him had gone their own ways withmen of their own choosing and he didn't know what had become of any ofthem. And the village people--they would start picking the Crown apartto sell the jewels, one by one, before the ashes of his pyre stoppedsmoking. 

"Let us have it, Keeper, " Salvadro said. "We will take it to Dremna, where armed men will guard it day and night, and it will be a trustupon the Government of the Empire forever. "

He recoiled in horror. "Man! You don't know what you're saying!" hecried. "This is the Crown, and I am the Keeper; I cannot part with itas long as there is life in me. "

"And when there is not, what? Will it be laid on your pyre, so that itmay end with you?" Dranigo asked. 

"Do you think we'd throw it away as soon as we got tired looking atit?" Salvadro exclaimed. "To show you how we'll value this, we'll giveyou . .. How much is a thousand imperials in trade-tokens, Dranigo?"

"I'd guess about twenty thousand. "

"We'll give you twenty thousand Government trade-tokens, " Salvadrosaid. "If it costs us that much, you'll believe that we'll take careof it, won't you?"

Raud rose stiffly. "It is a wrong thing, " he said, "to enter a man'shouse and eat at his table, and then insult him. "

Dranigo rose also, and Salvadro with him. "We had no mind to insultyou, Keeper, or offer you a bribe to betray your trust. We only offerto help you fulfill it, so that the Crown will be safe after all of usare dead. Well, we won't talk any more about it, now. We're going inYorn Nazvik's ship, tomorrow; he's trading in the country to the west, but before he returns to the Warm Seas, he'll stop at Long ValleyTown, and we'll fly over to see you. In the meantime, think aboutthis; ask yourself if you would not be doing a better thing for theCrown by selling it to us. "

They wanted to leave the dishes and the new lumicon, and he permittedit, to show that he was not offended by their offer to buy the Crown. He knew that it was something very important to them, and he admitted, grudgingly, that they could care for it better than he. At least, theywould not keep it in a hole under a hut in the wilderness, guardedonly by dogs. But they were not Keepers, and he was. To them, theCrown would be but one of many important things; to him it waseverything. He could not imagine life without it. 

He lay for a long time among his bed-robes, unable to sleep, thinkingof the Crown and the visitors. Finally, to escape those thoughts, hebegan planning tomorrow morning's hunt. 

He would start out as soon as the snow stopped, and go down among thescrub-pines; he would take Brave with him, and leave Bold on guard athome. Brave was more obedient, and a better hunter. Bold would jumpfor the deer that had been shot, but Brave always tried to catch orturn the ones that were still running. 

He needed meat badly, and he needed more deerskins, to make newclothes. He was thinking of the new overshirt he meant to make as hefell asleep. .. . 

It was past noon when he and Brave turned back toward Keeper's House. The deer had gone farther than he had expected, but he had found them, and killed four. The carcasses were cleaned and hung from trees, outof reach of the foxes and the wolves, and he would take Brave back tothe house and leave him on guard, and return with Bold and the sled tobring in the meat. He was thinking cheerfully of the fresh meat whenhe came out onto the path from the village, a mile from Keeper'sHouse. Then he stopped short, looking at the tracks. 

Three men--no, four--had come from the direction of the village sincethe snow had stopped. One had been wearing sealskin boots, of the sortworn by all Northfolk. The others had worn Southron boots, with ribbedplastic soles. That puzzled him. None of the village people woreSouthron boots, and as he had been leaving in the early morning, hehad seen Yorn Nazvik's ship, the _Issa_, lift out from the village andpass overhead, vanishing in the west. Possibly these were deserters. In any case, they were not good people. He slipped the heavy riflefrom its snow-cover, checked the chamber, and hung the empty coveraround his neck like a scarf. He didn't like the looks of it. 

He liked it even less when he saw that the man in sealskin boots hadstopped to examine the tracks he and Brave had made on leaving, andhad then circled the house and come back, to be joined by hisplastic-soled companions. Then they had all put down their packs andtheir ice-staffs, and advanced toward the door of the house. They hadstopped there for a moment, and then they had entered, come out again, gotten their packs and ice-staffs, and gone away, up the slope to thenorth. 

"Wait, Brave, " he said. "Watch. "

Then he advanced, careful not to step on any of the tracks until hereached the doorstep, where it could not be avoided. 

"Bold!" he called loudly. "Bold!"

Silence. No welcoming whimper, no padding of feet, inside. He pulledthe latchstring with his left hand and pushed the door open with hisfoot, the rifle ready. There was no need for that. What welcomed him, within, was a sickening stench of burned flesh and hair. 

The new lumicon lighted the room brilliantly; his first glance wasenough. The slab that had covered the crypt was thrown aside, alongwith the pile of deerskins, and between it and the door was ashapeless black heap that, in a dimmer light, would not have beeninstantly recognizable as the body of Bold. Fighting down an impulseto rush in, he stood in the door, looking about and reading the storyof what had happened. The four men had entered, knowing that theywould find Bold alone. The one in the lead had had a negatron pistoldrawn, and when Bold had leaped at them, he had been blasted. Theblast had caught the dog from in front--the chest-cavity was literallyexploded, and the neck and head burned and smashed unrecognizably. Even the brass studs on the leather collar had been melted. 

That and the ribbed sole-prints outside meant the samething--Southrons. Every Southron who came into the Northland, even thecommon crewmen on the trading ships, carried some kind of anenergy-weapon. They were good only for fighting--one look at the bodyof Bold showed what they did to meat and skins. 

He entered, then, laying his rifle on the table, and got down thelumicon and went over to the crypt. After a while, he returned, hungup the light again, and dropped onto a stool. He sat staring at theviolated crypt and tugging with one hand at a corner of his beard, trying desperately to think. 

The thieves had known exactly where the Crown was kept and how it wasguarded; after killing Bold, they had gone straight to it, taken itand gone away--three men in plastic-soled Southron boots and one manin soft boots of sealskins, each with a pack and an ice-staff, and twoof them with rifles. 

Vahr Farg's son, and three deserters from the crew of Yorn Nazvik'sship. 

It hadn't been Dranigo and Salvadro. They could have left the ship intheir airboat and come back, flying low, while he had been hunting. But they would have grounded near the house, they would not havecarried packs, and they would have brought nobody with them. 

He thought he knew what had happened. Vahr Farg's son had seen theCrown, and he had heard the two Starfolk offer more trade-tokens forit than everything in the village was worth. But he was a coward; hewould never dare to face the Keeper's rifle and the teeth of Brave andBold alone. So, since none of the village folk would have part in soshameful a crime against the moral code of the Northland, he hadtalked three of Yorn Nazvik's airmen into deserting and joining him. 

And he had heard Dranigo say that the _Issa_ would return to LongValley Town after the trading voyage to the west. Long Valley was onthe other side of this tongue of the Ice-Father; it was a good fifteendays' foot-journey around, but by climbing and crossing, they couldeasily be there in time to meet Yorn Nazvik's ship and the twoStarfolk. Well, where Vahr Farg's son could take three Southrons, Raudthe Keeper could follow. 

 * * * * *

Their tracks led up the slope beside the brook, always bearing to theleft, in the direction of the Ice-Father. After an hour, he foundwhere they had stopped and unslung their packs, and rested long enoughto smoke a cigarette. He read the story they had left in the snow, andthen continued, Brave trotting behind him pulling the sled. A fewsnowflakes began dancing in the air, and he quickened his steps. Heknew, generally, where the thieves were going, but he wanted theirtracks unobliterated in front of him. The snow fell thicker andthicker, and it was growing dark, and he was tiring. Even Brave wasstumbling occasionally before Raud stopped, in a hollow among thepines, to build his tiny fire and eat and feed the dog. They beddeddown together, covered by the same sleeping robes. 

When he woke, the world was still black and white and gray in theearly dawn-light, and the robe that covered him and Brave was powderedwith snow, and the pine-branches above him were loaded and sagging. 

The snow had completely obliterated the tracks of the four thieves, and it was still falling. When the sled was packed and the dogharnessed to it, they set out, keeping close to the flank of theIce-Father on their left. 

It stopped snowing toward mid-day, and a little after, he heard ashot, far ahead, and then two more, one upon the other. The first shotwould be the rifle of Vahr Farg's son; it was a single-loader, likehis own. The other two were from one of the light Southron rifles, which fired a dozen shots one after another. They had shot, or shotat, something like a deer, he supposed. That was sensible; it wouldsave their dried meat for the trip across the back of the Ice-Father. And it showed that they still didn't know he was following them. Hefound their tracks, some hours later. 

Toward dusk, he came to a steep building-mound. It had fared betterthan most of the houses of the ancient people; it rose to twenty timesa man's height and on the south-east side it was almost perpendicular. The other side sloped, and he was able to climb to the top, and faraway, ahead of him, he saw a tiny spark appear and grow. The firecould not be more than two hours ahead. 

He built no fire that evening, but shared a slab of pemmican withBrave, and they huddled together under the bearskin robe. The dog fellasleep at once. For a long time, Raud sat awake, thinking. 

At first, he considered resting for a while, and then pressing forwardand attacking them as they slept. He had to kill all of them to regainthe Crown; that he had taken for granted from the first. He knew whatwould happen if the Government Police came into this. They would takeone Southron's word against the word of ten Northfolk, and the thieveswould simply claim the Crown as theirs and accuse him of trying tosteal it. And Dranigo and Salvadro--they seemed like good men, butthey might see this as the only way to get the Crown forthemselves. .. . He would have to settle the affair for himself, beforethe men reached Long Valley town. 

If he could do it here, it would save him and Brave the toil anddanger of climbing the Ice-Father. But could he? They had two rifles, one an autoloader, and they had in all likelihood three negatronpistols. After the single shot of the big rifle was fired, he had onlya knife and a hatchet and the spiked and pickaxed ice-staff, andBrave. One of the thieves would kill him before he and Brave killedall of them, and then the Crown would be lost. He dropped into sleep, still thinking of what to do. 

He climbed the mound of the ancient building again in the morning, andlooked long and carefully at the face of the Ice-Father. It would takethe thieves the whole day to reach that place where the two tongues ofthe glacier split apart, the easiest spot to climb. They would not tryto climb that evening; Vahr, who knew the most about it, would be thelast to advise such a risk. He was sure that by going up at thenearest point he could get to the top of the Ice-Father before dark, and drag Brave up after him. It would be a fearful climb, and he wouldhave most of a day's journey after that to reach the head of the longravine up which the thieves would come, but when they came up, hecould be there waiting for them. He knew what the old rifle could do, to an inch, and there were places where the thieves would be coming upwhere he could stay out of blaster-range and pick them all off, evenwith a single-loader. 

He knew about negatron pistols, too. They shot little bullets ofenergy; they were very fast, and did not drop, like a real bullet, sothat no judgment of range was needed. But the energy died quickly; thenegatrons lived only long enough to go five hundred paces and no more. At eight hundred, he could hit a man easily. He almost felt himselfpitying Vahr Farg's son and his companions. 

When he reached the tumble of rocks that had been dragged along withand pushed out from the Ice-Father, he stopped and made up apack--sleeping robes, all his cartridges, as much pemmican as he couldcarry, and the bag of trade-tokens. If the chase took him to LongValley Town, he would need money. He also coiled about his waist along rawhide climbing-rope, and left the sled-harness on Brave, simplydetaching the traces. 

At first, they walked easily on the sloping ice. Then, as it grewsteeper, he fastened the rope to the dog's harness and advanced alittle at a time, dragging Brave up after him. Soon he was forced tosnub the rope with his ice-staff and chop steps with his hatchet. Toward noon--at least he thought it was noon--it began snowing again, and the valley below was blotted out in a swirl of white. 

They came to a narrow ledge, where they could rest, with a wall of icerising sheerly above them. He would have to climb that alone, and thenpull Brave up with the rope. He started working his way up theperpendicular face, clinging by the pick of his ice-staff, choppingfootholds with the hatchet; the pack and the slung rifle on his backpulled at him and threatened to drag him down. At length, he draggedhimself over the edge and drove the ice-staff in. 

"Up, Brave!" he called, tugging on the rope. "Good dog, Brave; comeup!"

Brave tried to jump and slipped back. He tried again, and this timeRaud snubbed the rope and held him. Below the dog pawed frantically, until he found a paw-hold on one of the chopped-out steps. Raud hauledon the rope, and made another snub. 

It seemed like hours. It probably was; his arms were aching, and hehad lost all sense of time, or of the cold, or the danger of the narrowledge; he forgot about the Crown and the men who had stolen it; heeven forgot how he had come here, or that he had ever been anywhereelse. All that mattered was to get Brave up on the ledge beside him. 

Finally Brave came up and got first his fore-paws and then his bodyover the edge. He lay still, panting proudly, while Raud hugged himand told him, over and over, that he was a good dog. They rested for along time, and Raud got a slab of pemmican from the pack and dividedit with Brave. 

It was while they rested in the snow, munching, that he heard thesound for the first time. It was faint and far away, and it soundedlike thunder, or like an avalanche beginning, and that puzzled him, for this was not the time of year for either. As he listened, he heardit again, and this time he recognized it--negatron pistols. Itfrightened him; he wondered if the thieves had met a band of hunters. No; if they were fighting Northfolk, there would be the reports offirearms, too. Or might they be fighting among themselves? Rememberingthe melted brass studs on Bold's collar, he became more frightened atthe thought of what a negatron-blast could do to the Crown. 

The noise stopped, then started again, and he got to his feet, callingto Brave. They were on a wide ledge that slanted upward toward thenorth. It would take him closer to the top, and closer to where Vahrand his companions would come up. Together, they started up, Raudprobing cautiously ahead of him with the ice-staff for hiddencrevasses. After a while, he came to a wide gap in the ice beside him, slanting toward the top, its upper end lost in swirling snow. So heand Brave began climbing, and after a while he could no longer hearthe negatron pistols. 

When it was almost too dark to go farther, he suddenly found himselfon level snow, and here he made camp, digging a hole and lining itwith the sleeping robes. 

The sky was clear when he woke, and a pale yellow light was glowing inthe east. For a while he lay huddled with the dog, stiff andmiserable, and then he forced himself to his feet. He ate, and fedBrave, and then checked his rifle and made his pack. 

He was sure, now, that he had a plan that would succeed. He couldreach the place where Vahr and the Southrons would come up long beforethey did, and be waiting for them. In his imagination, he could seethem coming up in single file, Vahr Farg's son in the lead, and hecould imagine himself hidden behind a mound of snow, the ice-staffupright to brace his left hand and the forestock of the rifle restingon his outthrust thumb and the butt against his shoulder. The firstbullet would be for Vahr. He could shoot all of them, one afteranother, that way. .. . 

He stopped, looking in chagrined incredulity at the tracks in front ofhim--the tracks he knew so well, of one man in sealskin boots andthree men with ribbed plastic soles. Why, it couldn't be! They shouldbe no more than half way up the long ravine, between the two tonguesof the Ice-Father, ten miles to the north. But here they were, on theback of the Ice-Father and crossing to the west ahead of him. Theymust have climbed the sheer wall of ice, only a few miles from wherehe had dragged himself and Brave to the top. Then he remembered thenegatron-blasts he had heard. While he had been chopping footholdswith a hatchet, they had been smashing tons of ice out of their way. 

"Well, Brave, " he said mildly. "Old Keeper wasn't so smart, after all, was he? Come on, Brave. "

The thieves were making good time. He read that from the tracks--straight, evenly spaced, no weary heel-dragging. Once or twice, hesaw where they had stopped for a brief rest. He hoped to see theirfire in the evening. 

He didn't. They wouldn't have enough fuel to make a big one, or keepit burning long. But in the morning, as he was breaking camp, he sawblack smoke ahead. 

A few times, he had been in air-boats, and had looked down on the backof the Ice-Father, and it had looked flat. Really, it was not. Therewere long ridges, sheer on one side and sloping gently on the other, where the ice had overridden hills and low mountains, or had crackedand one side had pushed up over the other. And there were deep gullieswhere the prevailing winds had scooped away loose snow year after yearfor centuries, and drifts where it had piled, many of them higher thanthe building-mounds of the ancient cities. But from a distance, asfrom above, they all blended into a featureless white monotony. 

At last, leaving a tangle of cliffs and ravines, he looked out acrossa broad stretch of nearly level snow and saw, for the first time, themen he was following. Four tiny dots, so far that they seemedmotionless, strung out in single file. Instantly, he crouched behind aswell in the surface and dragged Brave down beside him. One of them, looking back, might see him, as he saw them. When they vanished behinda snow-hill, he rose and hastened forward, to take cover again. Hekept at this all day; by alternately resting and running, be foundhimself gaining on them, and toward evening, he was withinrifle-range. The man in the lead was Vahr Farg's son; even at thatdistance he recognized him easily. The others were Southrons, ofcourse; they wore quilted garments of cloth, and quilted hoods. Theman next to Vahr, in blue, carried a rifle, as Vahr did. The man inyellow had only an ice-staff, and the man in green, at the rear, hadthe Crown on his pack, still in the bearskin bundle. 

He waited, at the end of the day, until he saw the light of theirfire. Then he and Brave circled widely around their camp, and stoppedbehind a snow-ridge, on the other side of an open and level stretch amile wide. He dug the sleeping-hole on the crest of the ridge, makingit larger than usual, and piled up a snow breastwork in front of it, with an embrasure through which he could look or fire without beingseen. 

Before daybreak, he was awake and had his pack made, and when he sawthe smoke of the thieves' campfire, he was lying behind hisbreastwork, the rifle resting on its folded cover, muzzle toward thesmoke. He lay for a long time, watching, before he saw the file oftiny dots emerge into the open. 

They came forward steadily, in the same order as on the day before, Vahr in the lead and the man with the Crown in the rear. The thievessuspected nothing; they grew larger and larger as they approached, until they were at the range for which he had set his sights. Hecuddled the butt of the rifle against his cheek. As the man whocarried the Crown walked under the blade of the front sight, hesqueezed the trigger. 

The rifle belched pink flame and roared and pounded his shoulder. Asthe muzzle was still rising, he flipped open the breech, and threw outthe empty. He inserted a fresh round. 

There were only three of them, now. The man with the bearskin bundlewas down and motionless. Vahr Farg's son had gotten his rifle unslungand uncovered. The Southron with the other rifle was slower; he wasonly getting off the cover as Vahr, who must have seen the flash, fired hastily. Too hastily; the bullet kicked up snow twenty feet tothe left. The third man had drawn his negatron pistol and was tryingto use it; thin hairlines of brilliance were jetting out from hishand, stopping far short of their mark. 

Raud closed his sights on the man with the autoloading rifle; as hedid, the man with the negatron pistol, realizing the limitations ofhis weapon, was sweeping it back and forth, aiming at the snow fiftyyards in front of him. Raud couldn't see the effect of his secondshot--between him and his target, blueish light blazed and twinkled, and dense clouds of steam rose--but he felt sure that he had missed. He reloaded, and watched for movements on the edge of the risingsteam. 

It cleared, slowly; when it did, there was nothing behind it. Even thebody of the dead man was gone. He blinked, bewildered. He'd pickedthat place carefully; there had been no gully or ravine within runningdistance. Then he grunted. There hadn't been--but there was now. Thenegatron pistol again. The thieves were hidden in a pit they hadblasted, and they had dragged the body in with them. 

He crawled back to reassure Brave, who was guarding the pack, and toshift the pack back for some distance. Then he returned to hisembrasure in the snow-fort and resumed his watch. For a long time, nothing happened, and then a head came briefly peeping up out of thepit. A head under a green hood. Raud chuckled mirthlessly into hisbeard. If he'd been doing that, he'd have traded hoods with the deadman before shoving up his body to draw fire. This kept up, atintervals, for about an hour. He was wondering if they would stay inthe pit until dark. 

Then Vahr Farg's son leaped out of the pit and began running acrossthe snow. He had his pack, and his rifle; he ran, zig-zag, almostdirectly toward where Raud was lying. Raud laughed, this time in realamusement. The Southrons had chased Vahr out, as a buck will chase hisdoes in front of him when he thinks there is danger in front. If Vahrwasn't shot, it would be safe for them to come out. If he was, itwould be no loss, and the price of the Crown would only have to bedivided in two, rather than three, shares. Vahr came to within twohundred yards of Raud's unseen rifle, and then dropped his pack andflung himself down behind it, covering the ridge with his rifle. 

Minutes passed, and then the Southron in yellow came out and ranforward. He had the bearskin bundle on his pack; he ran to where Vahrlay, added his pack to Vahr's, and lay down behind it. Raud chewed hisunderlip in vexation. This wasn't the way he wanted it; that fellowhad a negatron pistol, and he was close enough to use it effectively. And he was sheltered behind the Crown; Raud was afraid to shoot. Hedidn't miss what he shot at--often. But no man alive could say that henever missed. 

The other Southron, the one in blue with the autoloading rifle, cameout and advanced slowly, his weapon at the ready. Raud tensed himselfto jump, aimed carefully, and waited. When the man in blue was ahundred yards from the pit, he shot him dead. The rifle was stilllifting from the recoil when he sprang to his feet, turned, and ran. Before he was twenty feet away, the place where he had been exploded;the force of the blast almost knocked him down, and steam blew pastand ahead of him. Ignoring his pack and ice-staff, he ran on, callingto Brave to follow. The dog obeyed instantly; more negatron-blastswere thundering and blazing and steaming on the crest of the ridge. Heswerved left, ran up another slope, and slid down the declivitybeyond into the ravine on the other side. 

There he paused to eject the empty, make sure that there was no snowin the rifle bore, and reload. The blasting had stopped by then; aftera moment, he heard the voice of Vahr Farg's son, and guessed that thetwo surviving thieves had advanced to the blasted crest of the otherridge. They'd find the pack, and his tracks and Brave's. He wonderedwhether they'd come hunting for him, or turn around and go the otherway. He knew what he'd do, under the circumstances, but he doubted ifVahr's mind would work that way. The Southron's might; he wouldn'twant to be caught between blaster-range and rifle-range of Raud theKeeper again. 

"Come, Brave, " he whispered, looking quickly around and then startingto run. 

Lay a trail down this ravine for them to follow. Then get to the topof the ridge beside it, double back, and wait for them. Let them pass, and shoot the Southron first. By now, Vahr would have a negatronpistol too, taken from the body of the man in blue, but it wasn't aweapon he was accustomed to, and he'd be more than a little afraid ofit. 

The ravine ended against an upthrust face of ice, at right angles tothe ridge he had just crossed; there was a V-shaped notch betweenthem. He turned into this; it would be a good place to get to thetop. .. . 

He found himself face to face, at fifteen feet, with Vahr Farg's sonand the Southron in yellow, coming through from the other side. Theyhad their packs, the Southron had the bearskin bundle, and they haddrawn negatron pistols in their hands. 

Swinging up the rifle, he shot the Southron in the chest, making surehe hit him low enough to miss the Crown. At the same time, he shouted:

"_Catch, Brave!_"

Brave never jumped for the deer or wild-ox that had been shot; alwaysfor the one still on its feet. He launched himself straight at thethroat of Vahr Farg's son--and into the muzzle of Vahr's blaster. Hedied in a blue-white flash. 

Raud had reversed the heavy rifle as Brave leaped; he threw it, butt-on, like a seal-spear, into Vahr's face. As soon as it was out ofhis fingers, he was jumping forward, snatching out his knife. His lefthand found Vahr's right wrist, and he knew that he was driving theknife into Vahr's body, over and over, trying to keep the blasterpointed away from him and away from the body of the dead Southron. Atlast, the negatron-pistol fell from Vahr's fingers, and the arm thathad been trying to fend off his knife relaxed. 

He straightened and tried to stand--he had been kneeling on Vahr'sbody, he found--and reeled giddily. He got to his feet and stumbled tothe other body, kneeling beside it. He tried for a long time before hewas able to detach the bearskin bundle from the dead man's pack. Thenhe got the pack open, and found dried venison. He started to divideit, and realized that there was no Brave with whom to share it. He hadjust sent Brave to his death. 

Well, and so? Brave had been the Keeper's dog. He had died for theCrown, and that had been his duty. If he could have saved the Crown bygiving his own life, Raud would have died too. But he could not--ifRaud died the Crown was lost. 

The sky was darkening rapidly, and the snow was whitening the body ingreen. Moving slowly, he started to make camp for the night. 

It was still snowing when he woke. He started to rise, wondering, atfirst, where Brave was, and then he huddled back among the robes--hisown and the dead men's--and tried to go to sleep again. Finally, hegot up and ate some of his pemmican, gathered his gear and broke camp. For a moment, and only a moment, he stood looking to the east, in thedirection he had come from. Then he turned west and started across thesnow toward the edge of the Ice-Father. 

 * * * * *

The snow stopped before he reached the edge, and the sun was shiningwhen he found a slanting way down into the valley. Then, out of thenorth, a black dot appeared in the sky and grew larger, until he sawthat it was a Government airboat--one of the kind used by the men whomeasured the growth of the Ice-Father. It came curving in and downtoward him, and a window slid open and a man put his head out. 

"Want us to lift you down?" he asked. "We're going to Long ValleyTown. If that's where you're going, we can take you the whole way. "

"Yes. That's where I'm going. " He said it as though he were revealing, for the first time, some discovery he had just made. "For yourkindness and help, I thank you. "

In less time than a man could walk two miles with a pack, they wereletting down in front of the Government House in Long Valley Town. 

He had never been in the Government House before. The walls were clearglass. The floors were plastic, clean and white. Strips of bright newlumicon ran around every room at the tops of all the walls. There wereno fires, but the great rooms were as warm as though it were amidsummer afternoon. 

Still carrying his pack and his rifle, Raud went to a desk where aSouthron in a white shirt sat. 

"Has Yorn Nazvik's ship, the _Issa_, been here lately?" he asked. 

"About six days ago, " the Southron said, without looking up from thepapers on his desk. "She's on a trading voyage to the west now, butNazvik's coming back here before he goes south. Be here in about tendays. " He looked up. "You have business with Nazvik?"

Raud shook his head. "Not with Yorn Nazvik, no. My business is withthe two Starfolk who are passengers with him. Dranigo and Salvadro. "

The Southron looked displeased. "Aren't you getting just a littleabove yourself, old man, calling the Prince Salsavadran and the LordDranigrastan by their familiar names?" he asked. 

"I don't know what you're talking about. Those were the names theygave me; I didn't know they had any others. "

The Southron started to laugh, then stopped. 

"And if I may ask, what is your name, and what business have you withthem?" he inquired. 

Raud told him his name. "I have something for them. Something theywant very badly. If I can find a place to stay here, I will wait untilthey return--"

The Southron got to his feet. "Wait here for a moment, Keeper, " hesaid. "I'll be back soon. "

He left the desk, going into another room. After a while, he cameback. This time he was respectful. 

"I was talking to the Lord Dranigrastan--whom you know as Dranigo--onthe radio. He and the Prince Salsavadran are lifting clear of the_Issa_ in their airboat and coming back here to see you. They shouldbe here in about three hours. If, in the meantime, you wish to batheand rest, I'll find you a room. And I suppose you'll want something toeat, too. .. . "

 * * * * *

He was waiting at the front of the office, looking out the glass wall, when the airboat came in and grounded, and Salvadro and Dranigo jumpedout and came hurrying up the walk to the doorway. 

"Well, here you are, Keeper, " Dranigo greeted him, clasping his hand. Then he saw the bearskin bundle under Raud's arm. "You brought it withyou? But didn't you believe that we were coming?"

"Are you going to let us have it?" Salvadro was asking. 

"Yes; I will sell it to you, for the price you offered. I am not fitto be Keeper any longer. I lost it. It was stolen from me, the dayafter I saw you, and I have only yesterday gotten it back. Both mydogs were killed, too. I can no longer keep it safe. Better that youtake it with you to Dremna, away from this world where it was made. Ihave thought, before, that this world and I are both old and good fornothing any more. "

"This world may be old, Keeper, " Dranigo said, "but it is theMother-World, Terra, the world that sent Man to the Stars. Andyou--when you lost the Crown, you recovered it again. "

"The next time, I won't be able to. Too many people will know that theCrown is worth stealing, and the next time, they'll kill me first. "

"Well, we said we'd give you twenty thousand trade-tokens for it, "Salvadro said. "We'll have them for you as soon as we can draw themfrom the Government bank, here. Or give you a check and let you drawthem as you want them. " Raud didn't understand that, and Salvadrodidn't try to explain. "And then we'll fly you home. "

He shook his head. "No, I have no home. The place where you saw me isKeeper's House, and I am not the Keeper any more. I will stay here andfind a place to live, and pay somebody to take care of me. .. . "

With twenty thousand trade-tokens, he could do that. It would buy ahouse in which he could live, and he could find some woman who hadlost her man, who would do his work for him. But he must be careful ofthe money. Dig a crypt in the corner of his house for it. He wonderedif he could find a pair of good dogs and train them to guard it forhim. .. . 

 * * * * *