[Illustration (Cover):DUEL OF THE COSMIC MAGICIANS

VOODOOPLANET

ANDREW NORTHComplete Novel]

CHALLENGE ME WITH MONSTERS!

"From between the two shuffling dancers padded something on four feet. The canine-feline creature was more than just a head; it was aloose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet in length, and the red eyesin the prick-eared head were those of a killer. .. . Words issued frombetween those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand. .. . 

"Dane slid his blade out surreptitiously, setting its point against thepalm of his hand and jabbing painfully; but the terrible creaturecontinued to advance. .. . There was no blurring of its lines. .. . "

Dane Thorson of the space-ship _Solar Queen_ knew there was only one wayto win out over this hideous thing--a battle to the end between hisrational mind and the hypnotic witchcraft of Lumbrilo, the mental wizardof the planet Khatka. 

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Dane Thorson

He wanted to spend a short vacation on Khatka, not the rest of his life. 

Medic Tau

Was he physician or magician--or a little bit of both?

Chief Ranger Asaki

Tracking the forests had taught him that mad animals--whether real orimaginary--were to be feared. 

Captain Jellico

Would his knowledge of alien life-forms help him in his fight againstalien ghosts?

Nymani

Not even this pilot's most scientific skill could overcome a voodoocharm's ground-drag. 

Lumbrilo

On his own planet he was a witch doctor; on Earth he'd have been amaster politician. 

VOODOO PLANET

by

ANDREW NORTH

ACE BOOKS, INC. 

23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y. 

VOODOO PLANET

Copyright (c), 1959, by Ace Books, Inc. 

All Rights Reserved

Printed in U. S. A. 

 +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's Note | | | | There is no evidence that the copyright on this publication | | was renewed. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

I

Talk of heat--or better not--on Xecho. This water-logged world combinedall the most unattractive features of a steam bath and one could onlydream of coolness, greenness--more land than a stingy string of islands. 

The young man on the promontory above the crash of the waves wore thewinged cap of a spaceman with the insignia of a cargo-master and notmuch else, save a pair of very short shorts. He wiped one hand absentlyacross his bare chest and brought it away damp as he studied, throughprotective sun goggles, the treacherous promise of the bright sea. One_could_ swim--if he wanted to lose most of his skin. There were minuteorganisms in that liquid that smacked their lips--if they hadlips--every time they thought of a Terran. 

Dane Thorson licked his own lips, tasting salt, and plodded back throughthe sand of the spaceport to the berth of the _Solar Queen_. This hadbeen a long day, and one with more snarl-ups than he cared to count, keeping him on a constant, dogged trot between the ship and the fittingyard where riggers labored with the slowest motions possible to thehuman body--or so it seemed to the exasperated acting-Cargo-Master ofthe Free Trader. Captain Jellico had long ago taken refuge in his cabinto preserve the remnants of his temper. Dane had been allowed no suchescape. 

The _Queen_ had a schedule for refitting to serve as a mail ship, andthat time allowance did not allow for humidity playing the devil withthe innards of robot fitters. She _had_ to be ready to lift when theCombine ship now plying that run set down and formally signed off in herfavor. Luckily, most of the work was done and Dane had given a lastsearching inspection before signing the rigger's book and reporting tohis captain. 

The air-conditioned interior of the _Queen_ comforted him as he climbedto his quarters. Ship air was flat, chemically pure but unappetizingstuff. Today it was a relief to breathe. Dane went on to the bather. Atleast there was no lack of water--with the local skinners filtered out. It was chill but relaxing on his gaunt young body. 

He was sealing on his lightest tunic when the ramp buzzer sounded. Avisitor--oh, not the supervisor-rigger again! Dane went to answer withdragging feet. For the crew of the _Queen_ at the moment numberedexactly four, with himself for general errand boy. Captain Jellico wasin his quarters two levels above, Medic Tau was presumably overhaulinghis supplies, and Sindbad, ship's cat, asleep in some empty cabin. 

Dane jerked his tunic into place, very much on his guard as he came tothe head of the ramp. But it was not the supervisor-rigger. Dane, thoroughly used to unusual-appearing strangers, both human and alien, was impressed by this visitor. 

He was tall, this quiet man, his great height accented by a fitleanness, a narrowness of waist and hip, a length of leg and arm. Hismain article of clothing was the universal shorts of the Xecho settler. But, being fashioned of saffron yellow, they were the more brilliantbecause of his darkness of skin. For he was not the warm brown of theTerran Negroes Dane had served beside, though he shared their generalfeatures. His flesh was really black, black with an almost bluish sheen. Instead of shirt or tunic, his deep chest was crossed by two widestraps, the big medallion marking their intersection giving forthflashes of gem fire when he breathed. He wore at his belt not thestandard stun gun of a spaceman, but a weapon which resembled the moredeadly Patrol blaster, as well as a long knife housed in a jeweled andfringed sheath. To the eye he was an example of barbaric force tamedand trimmed to civilized efficiency. 

He saluted, palm out, and spoke Galactic Basic with only a suggestion ofaccent. 

"I am Kort Asaki. I believe Captain Jellico expects me. "

"Yes, sir!" Dane snapped to attention. So this was the Chief Ranger fromfabulous Khatka, Xecho's sister planet. 

The other ascended the cat ladder easily, missing no detail of theship's interior as he passed. His expression was still one of politeinterest as his guide rapped on the panel door of Jellico's cabin. And ahorrible screech from Queex, the captain's pet hoobat, drowned out anyimmediate answer. Then followed that automatic thump on the floor of theblue-feathered, crab-parrot-toad's cage, announcing that its master wasin residence. 

Since the captain's cordial welcome extended only to his guest, Daneregretfully descended to the mess cabin to make unskilled preparationsfor supper--though there was not much you could do to foul upconcentrates in an automatic cooker. 

"Company?" Tau sat beyond the cooking unit nursing a mug of Terrancoffee. "And do you _have_ to serve music with the meals, especiallythat particular selection?"

Dane flushed, stopped whistling in mid-note. "Terra Bound" _was_ oldand pretty well worn out; he didn't know why he always unconsciouslysounded off with that. 

"A Chief Ranger from Khatka just came on board, " he reported, carefullyoffhand, as he busied himself reading labels. He knew better than toserve fish or any of its derivatives in disguise again. 

"Khatka!" Tau sat up straighter. "Now there's a planet worth visiting. "

"Not on a Free Trader's pay, " commented Dane. 

"You can always hope to make a big strike, boy. But what I wouldn't giveto lift ship for there!"

"Why? You're no hunter. How come you want to heat jets for that port?"

"Oh, I don't care about the game preserves, though they're worth seeing, too. It's the people themselves--"

"But they're Terran settlers, or at least from Terran stock, aren'tthey?"

"Sure, " Tau sipped his coffee slowly. "But there are settlers andsettlers, son. And a lot depends upon when they left Terra and why, andwho they were--also what happened to them after they landed out here. "

"And Khatkans are really special?"

"Well, they have an amazing history. The colony was founded by escapedprisoners--and just one racial stock. They took off from Earth close tothe end of the Second Atomic War. That was a race war, remember? Whichmade it doubly ugly. " Tau's mouth twisted in disgust. "As if the colorof a man's skin makes any difference in what lies under it! One side inthat line-up tried to take over Africa--herded most of the natives intoa giant concentration camp and practiced genocide on a grand scale. Thenthey were cracked themselves, hard and heavy. During the confusion somesurvivors in the camp staged a revolt, helped by the enemy. Theycaptured an experimental station hidden in the center of the camp andmade a break into space in two ships which had been built there. Thatvoyage must have been a nightmare, but they were desperate. Somehow theymade it out here to the rim and set down on Khatka without power enoughto take off again--and by then most of them were dead. 

"But we humans, no matter what our race, are a tough breed. The refugeesdiscovered that climatically their new world was not too different fromAfrica, a lucky chance which might happen only once in a thousand times. So they thrived, the handful who survived. But the white techniciansthey had kidnaped to run the ships didn't. For they set up a color barin reverse. The lighter your skin, the lower you were in the socialscale. By that kind of selective breeding the present Khatkans are verydark indeed. 

"They reverted to the primitive for survival. Then, about two hundredyears ago, long before the first Survey Scout discovered them, somethinghappened. Either the parent race mutated, or, as sometimes occurs, aline of people of superior gifts emerged--not in a few isolated births, but with surprising regularity in five family clans. There was a shortperiod of power struggle until they realized the foolishness of civilwar and formed an oligarchy, heading a loose tribal organization. Withthe Five Families to push and lead, a new civilization developed, andwhen Survey came to call they were no longer savages. Combine bought thetrade rights about seventy-five years ago. Then the Company and the FiveFamilies got together and marketed a luxury item to the galaxy. You knowhow every super-jet big shot on twenty-five planets wants to say he'shunted on Khatka. And if he can point out a graz head on his wall, orwear a tail bracelet, he's able to strut with the best. To holiday onKhatka is both fabulous and fashionable--and very, very profitable forthe natives and for Combine who sells transportation to the travelers. "

"I hear they have poachers, too, " Dane remarked. 

"Yes, that naturally follows. You know what a glam skin brings on themarket. Wherever you have a rigidly controlled export you're going tohave poachers and smugglers. But the Patrol doesn't go to Khatka. Thenatives handle their own criminals. Personally, I'd cheerfully take aninety-nine-year sentence in the Lunar mines in place of what theKhatkans dish out to a poacher they net!"

"So that rumor has spread satisfactorily!"

Coffee slopped over the brim of Tau's mug and Dane dropped the packet ofsteak concentrate he was about to feed into the cooker. Chief RangerAsaki loomed in the doorway of the mess as suddenly as if he had beenteleported to that point. 

The medic arose to his feet and smiled politely at the visitor. 

"Do I detect in that observation, sir, the suggestion that the tales Ihave heard were deliberately set to blast where they would do the mostgood as deterrents?"

A fleeting grin broke the impassive somberness of the black face. 

"I was informed you are a man skilled in 'magic, ' Medic. You certainlydisplay the traditional sorcerer's quickness of wit. But this rumor isalso truth. " The quirk of good humor had gone again, and there was anedge in the Chief Ranger's voice which cut. "Poachers on Khatka wouldwelcome the Patrol in place of the attention they now receive. "

He came into the mess cabin, Jellico behind him, and Dane pulled downtwo of the snap seats. He was holding a mug under the spout of thecoffee dispenser as the captain made introductions. 

"Thorson--our acting-cargo-master. "

"Thorson, " the Khatkan acknowledged with a grave nod of his head, andthen glanced down to floor level with a look of surprise. Weaving apattern about his legs, purring loudly, Sindbad was offering anunusually fervent welcome of his own. The Ranger went down on one knee, his hand out for Sindbad's inquiring sniff. Then the cat butted thatdark palm, batted at it playfully with claw-sheathed paw. 

"A Terran cat! It is of the lion family?"

"Far removed, " Jellico supplied. "You'd have to add a lot of bulk toSindbad to promote him to the lion class. "

"We have only the old tales. " Asaki sounded almost wistful as the catjumped to his knee and clawed for a hold on his chest belts. "But I donot believe that lions were ever so friendly toward my ancestors. "

Dane would have removed the cat, but the Khatkan arose with Sindbad, still purring loudly, resting in the crook of his arm. The Ranger wassmiling with a gentleness which changed the whole arrogant cast of hiscountenance. 

"Do not bring this one to Khatka with you, Captain, or you will nevertake him away again. Those who dwell in the inner courts would not lethim vanish from their sight. Ah, so this pleases you, small lion?" Herubbed Sindbad gently under the throat and the cat stretched his neck, his yellow eyes half closed in bliss. 

"Thorson, " the Captain turned to Dane, "that arrival report on my deskwas the final one from Combine?"

"Yes, sir. There's no hope of the _Rover_ setting down here before thatdate. "

Asaki sat down, still holding the cat. "So you see, Captain, fortune hasarranged it all. You have two tens of days. Four days to go in mycruiser, four days for your return here, and the rest to explore thepreserve. We could not ask for better luck, for I do not know when ourpaths may cross again. In the normal course of events I will not haveanother mission to Xecho for a year, perhaps longer. Also--" Hehesitated and then spoke to Tau. "Medic, Captain Jellico has informed methat you have made a study of magic on many worlds. "

"That is so, sir. "

"Do you then believe that it is real force, or that it is only asuperstition for child-people who set up demons to howl petitions towhen some darkness falls upon them?"

"Some of the magic I have seen is trickery, some of it founded upon aninner knowledge of men and their ways which a shrewd witch doctor canuse to his advantage. There always remains"--Tau put down his mug, "--there always remains a small residue of happenings and results forwhich we have not yet found any logical explanations--"

"And I believe, " Asaki interrupted, "it is also true that a race can beconditioned from birth to be sensitive to forms of magic so that men ofthat blood are particularly susceptible. " That was more of a statementthan a question, but Tau answered it. 

"That is very true. A Lamorian, for example, can be 'sung' to death. Ihave witnessed such a case. But upon a Terran or another off-world manthe same suggestion would have no effect. "

"Those who settled Khatka brought such magic with them. " The ChiefRanger's fingers still moved about Sindbad's jaw and throat soothingly, but his tone was chill, the coldest thing in the cramped space of themess cabin. 

"Yes, a highly developed form of it, " Tau agreed. 

"More highly developed perhaps than even you can believe, Medic!"That came in a hiss of cold rage. "I think that its presentmanifestation--death by a beast that is not a beast--could be worthyour detailed study. "

"Why?" Tau came bluntly to the point. 

"Because it is a killing magic and it is being carefully used to rid myworld of key men, men we need badly. If there is a weak point in thiscloudy attack shaping against us, we must learn it, and soon!"

It was Jellico who added the rest. "We are invited to visit Khatka andsurvey a new hunting range as Chief Ranger Asaki's personal termguests. "

Dane drew a deep breath of wonder. Guest rights on Khatka were jealouslyguarded--they were too valuable to their owners to waste. Whole familieslived on the income from the yearly rental of even half a one. But theRangers, by right of office, had several which they could grant tovisiting scientists or men from other worlds holding positions similarto their own. To have such an opportunity offered to an ordinary Traderwas almost incredible. 

His wonder was matched by Tau's and must have been plain to read for theChief Ranger smiled. 

"For a long time Captain Jellico and I have exchanged biological data onalien life-forms--his skill in photographing such, his knowledge as anxenobiologist are widely recognized. And so I have permission for him tovisit the new Zoboru preserve, not yet officially opened. And you, MedicTau, your help, or at least your diagnosis, we need in anotherdirection. So, one expert comes openly, another not so openly. Though, Medic, your task is approved by my superiors. And"--he glanced atDane--"perhaps to muddle the trail for the suspicious, shall we not askthis young man also?"

Dane's eyes went to the captain. Jellico was always fair and his crewwould have snapped into action on his word alone--even if they werefronting a rain of Thorkian death darts and that order was to advance. But, on the other hand, Dane would never have asked a favor, and thebest he hoped for was to be able to perform his duties withoutunfavorable comment upon their commission. He had no reason to believeJellico was willing to agree to this. 

"You have two weeks' planet-side leave coming, Thorson. If you want tospend it on Khatka. .. . " Jellico actually grinned then. "I take it thatyou do. When do we up-ship, sir?"

"You said that you must wait for the return of your other crewmembers--shall we say mid-afternoon tomorrow?" The Chief Ranger stood upand put Sindbad down though the cat protested with several sharp meows. 

"Small lion, " the tall Khatkan spoke to the cat as to an equal, "this isyour jungle, and mine lies elsewhere. But should you ever grow tired oftraveling the stars, there is always a home for you in my courts. "

When the Chief Ranger went out the door, Sindbad did not try to follow, but he uttered one mournful little cry of protest and loss. 

"So he wants a trouble shooter, does he?" Tau asked. "All right, I'lltry to hunt out his goblins for him; it'll be worth that to visitKhatka!"

Dane, remembering the hot glare of the Xecho spaceport, the sea onecould not swim in, contrasted that with the tri-dees he had seen of thegreen hunters' paradise on the next planet of the system. "Yes, sir!" heechoed and made a haphazard choice for the cooker. 

"Don't be too lighthearted, " Tau warned. "I'll say that any stew whichwas too hot for that Ranger to handle might give us burned fingers--andquick. When we land on Khatka, walk softly and look over your shoulder, and be prepared for the worst. "

II

Lightning played along the black ridges above them, and below was asheer drop to a river which was only a silver thread. Under their boots, man-made and yet dominating the wildness of jungle and mountain, was aplatform of rock slabs, fused to support a palace of toweringyellow-white walls and curved cups of domes, a palace which was alsohalf fortress, half frontier post. 

Dane set his hands on the parapet of the river drop, blinked as alightning bolt crackled in a sky-splitting glare of violet fire. Thiswas about as far from the steaming islands of Xecho as a man couldimagine. 

"The demon graz prepare for battle. " Asaki nodded toward the distantcrackling. 

Captain Jellico laughed. "Supposed to be whetting their tusks, eh? Iwouldn't care to meet a graz that could produce such a display by meretusk whetting. "

"No? But think of the reward for the tracker who discovers where such goto die. To find the graveyard of the graz herds would make any manwealthy beyond dreams. "

"How much truth is there in that legend?" Tau asked. 

The Chief Ranger shrugged. "Who can say? This much _is_ true: I haveserved my life in the forests since I could walk. I have listened to thetalk of Trackers, Hunters, Rangers in my father's courtyards and fieldcamps since I could understand their words. Yet never has any manreported the finding of a body of a graz that died a natural death. Thescavengers might well account for the bulk of flesh, but the tusks andthe bones should be visible for years. And this, too, I have seen withmy own eyes: a graz close to death, supported by two of its kind andbeing urged along to the big swamps. Perhaps it is only that thesuffering animal longs for water at its end, or perhaps in the heart ofthat morass there does lie the graz graveyard. But no man has found anaturally dead graz, nor has any returned from exploring the bigswamps. .. . "

Lightning on peaks which were like polished jet--bare rock above, thelush overgrowth of jungle below. And between, this fortress held by menwho dared both the heights and the depths. The wildly burgeoning life ofKhatka had surrounded the off-worlders since they had come here. Therewas something untameable about Khatka; the lush planet lured and yetrepelled at the same time. 

"Zoboru far from here?"

The Chief Ranger pointed north in answer to the captain's question. 

"About a hundred leagues. It is the first new preserve we have preparedin ten years. And it is our desire to make it the best for tri-deehunters. That is why we are now operating taming teams--"

"Taming teams?" Dane had to ask. 

The Chief Ranger was ready enough to discuss his project. 

"Zoboru is a no-kill preserve. The animals, they come to learn thatafter a while. But we cannot wait several years until they do. So wemake them gifts. " He laughed, evidently recalling some incident. "Sometimes, perhaps, we are too eager. Most of our visitors who wish tomake tri-dees want to picture big game--graz, amplet, rock apes, lions--"

"Lions?" echoed Dane. 

"Not Terran lions, no. But my people, when they landed on Khatka, founda few animals that reminded them of those they had always known. So theygave those the same names. A Khatkan lion is furred, it is a hunter anda great fighter, but it is not the cat of Terra. However, it is in greatdemand as a tri-dee actor. So we summon it out of lurking by providingfree meals. One shoots a poli, a water rat, or a landeer and drags thecarcass behind a low-flying flitter. The lion springs upon the movingmeat, which it can also scent, and the rope is cut, leaving a freedinner. 

"The lions are not stupid. In a very short time they connect the soundof a flitter cutting the air with food. So they come to the banquet andthose on the flitter can take their tri-dee shots at ease. Only theremust also be care taken in such training. One forest guard on the Komogpreserve became too enterprising. He dragged his kill at first. Then, tosee if he could get the lions to forget man's presence entirely, he hungthe training carcasses on the flitter, encouraging them to jump fortheir food. 

"For the guard that was safe enough, but it worked too too well. A monthor so later a Hunter was escorting a client through Komog and they swunglow to get a good picture of a water rat emerging from the river. Suddenly there was a snarl behind them and they found themselves sharingthe flitter with a lioness annoyed at finding no meat waiting on board. 

"Luckily, they both wore stass belts; but they had to land the flitterand leave until the lioness wandered off, and she seriously damaged themachine in her irritation. So now our guards play no more fancy trickswhile on taming runs. Tomorrow--no, " he corrected himself, "the dayafter tomorrow I will be able to show you how the process works. "

"And tomorrow?" inquired the captain. 

"Tomorrow my men make hunting magic. " Asaki's voice was expressionless. 

"Your chief witch doctor being?" questioned Tau. 

"Lumbrilo. " The Chief Ranger did not appear disposed to add to that butTau pursued the subject. 

"His office is hereditary?"

"Yes. Does that make any difference?" For the first time there was acurrent of repressed eagerness in the other's tone. 

"Perhaps a vast amount of difference, " Tau replied. "A hereditary officemay carry with it two forms of conditioning, one to influence itsholder, one to affect the public-at-large. Your Lumbrilo may have cometo believe deeply in his own powers; he would be a very remarkable manif he did not. It is almost certain that your people unquestionablyaccept him as a worker of wonders?"

"They do so accept. " Once more Asaki's voice was drained of life. 

"And Lumbrilo does not accept something you believe necessary?"

"Again the truth, Medic. Lumbrilo does not accept his proper place inthe scheme of things!"

"He is a member of one of your Five Families?"

"No, his clan is small, always set apart. From the beginning here, thosewho spoke for gods and demons did not also order men. "

"Separation of church and state, " commented Tau thoughtfully. "Yet inour Terran past there have been times when church and state were one. Does Lumbrilo desire that?"

Asaki raised his eyes to the mountain peaks, to the northward where layhis beloved work. 

"I do not know what Lumbrilo wants, save that it makes mischief--orworse! This I tell you: hunting magic is part of our lives and it has atits core some of those unexplainable happenings which you haveacknowledged do exist. I have used powers I can neither explain norunderstand as part of my work. In the jungle and on the grasslands anoff-worlder must guard his life with a stass belt if he goes unarmed. But I--any of my men--can walk unharmed if we obey the rules of ourmagic. Only Lumbrilo does other things which his forefathers did not. And he boasts that he can do more. So he has a growing following ofthose who believe--and those who fear. "

"You want me to face him?"

The Chief Ranger's big hands closed upon the rim of the parapet as ifthey could exert enough pressure to crumble the hard stone. "I want youto see whether there is trickery in this. Trickery I can fight, forthat there are weapons. But if Lumbrilo truly controls forces for whichthere is no name, then perhaps we must patch up an uneasy peace--or godown in defeat. And, off-worlder, I come from a line of warriors--we donot drink defeat easily!"

"That I also believe, " Tau returned quietly. "Be sure, sir, if there istrickery in this man's magic and I can detect it, the secret shall beyours. "

"Let us hope that so it shall be. "

Subconsciously, Dane had always associated the practice of magic withdarkness and the night. But the next morning the sun was high and hotwhen he made one of the party coming down to a second and larger walledterrace where the Hunters, Trackers, Guards and other followers of theChief Ranger were assembled in irregular rows. 

There was a low sound which was more a throb in the clear air aboutthem, getting into a man's blood and pumping in rhythm there. Danetracked the sound to its source: four large drums standing waist highbefore the men who tapped them delicately with the tips of all tenfingers. 

The necklaces of claws and teeth about those dusky throats, the kilts offringed hide, the crossed belts of brilliantly spotted or striped furwere in contrast to the very efficient and modern side arms each manwore, to the rest of the equipment sheathed and strapped at their belts. 

There was a carved stool for the Chief Ranger, another for CaptainJellico. Dane and Tau settled themselves on the less comfortable seatsof the terrace steps. Those tapping fingers increased their rate ofbeat, and the notes of the drums rose from the low murmur of hived beesto the mutter of mountain thunder still half a range away. A bird calledfrom those inner courts of the palace from which the women neverventured. 

Da--da--da--da. .. . Voices took up the thud-thud of the drums, the headsof the squatting men moved in a slow swing from side to side. Tau's handclosed about Dane's wrist and the younger man looked around, startled, to see that the medic's eyes were alight, that he was watching theassembly with the alertness of Sindbad approaching prey. 

"Calculate the stowage space in Number One hold!"

That amazing order, delivered in a whisper, shocked Dane into obeyingit. Number One hold . .. There were three divisions now and the stowagewas--He became aware that for a small space of time he had escaped thenet being woven by the beat of the drum, the drone of voices, thenodding of heads. He moistened his lips. So that was how it worked! Hehad heard Tau speak often enough about self-hypnotism under suchconditions, but this was the first time the meaning of it had beenclear. 

Two men were shuffling out of nowhere, wearing nothing on their darkbodies but calf-length kilts of tails, black tails with fluffy whitetips, which swayed uniformly in time to their pacing feet. Their headsand shoulders were masked by beautifully cured and semi-mounted animalheads displaying half-open jaws with double pairs of curved fangs. Theblack-and-white striped fur, the sharply pointed ears, were neithercanine nor feline, but a weird combination of the two. 

Dane gabbled two trading formulas under his breath and tried to think ofthe relation of Samantine rock coinage to galactic credits. Only thistime his defenses did not work. From between the two shuffling dancerspadded something on four feet. The canine-feline creature was more thanjust a head; it was a loose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet inlength, and the red eyes in the prick-eared head were those of aconfident killer. It walked without restraint, lazily, with arrogance, its white-tufted tail swinging. And when it reached the mid-point of theterrace, it flung up its head as if to challenge. But words issued frombetween those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand butwhich undoubtedly held meaning for the men nodding in time to thehypnotic cadence of that da--da--da. .. . 

"Beautiful!" Tau spoke in honest admiration, his own eyes almost asferal as those of the talking beast as he leaned forward, his fists onhis knees. 

Now the animal was dancing also, its paws following the pace set by themasked attendants. It must be a man in an animal skin. But Dane couldhardly believe that. The illusion was too perfect. His own hands went tothe knife sheath at his belt. Out of deference to local custom they hadleft their stun rods in the palace, but a belt knife was an acceptedarticle of apparel. Dane slid the blade out surreptitiously, setting itspoint against the palm of his hand and jabbing painfully. This wasanother of Tau's answers for breaking a spell. But the white and blackcreature continued to dance; there was no blurring of its body linesinto those of a human being. 

It sang on in a high-pitched voice, and Dane noted that those of theaudience nearest the stools where Asaki and the captain were seated nowwatched the Chief Ranger and the space officer. He felt Tau tense besidehim. 

"Trouble coming. .. . " The warning from Tau was the merest thread ofsound. Dane forced himself to look away from the swaying cat-dog, towatch instead the singers who were now furtively eying their lord andhis guest. The Terran knew that there were feudal bonds between theRanger and his men. But suppose this was a showdown between Lumbrilo andAsaki--whose side would these men take?

He watched Captain Jellico's hand slide across his knee, his fingersdrop in touching distance of knife hilt. And the hand of the ChiefRanger, hanging lax at his side, suddenly balled into a fist. 

"So!" Tau expelled the word as a hiss. He moved with sure-footed speed. Now he passed between the stools to confront the dancing cat-dog. Yet hedid not look at that weird creature and its attendants. Instead his armswere flung high as if to ward off--or perhaps welcome--something on themountain side as he shouted:

"_Hodi, eldama! Hodi!_"

As one, those on the terrace turned, looked up toward the slope. Danewas on his feet, holding his knife as he might a sword. Though of whatuse its puny length would be against that huge bulk moving in slowmajesty toward them, he did not try to think. 

Gray-dark trunk curled upward between great ivory tusks, ears went wideas ponderous feet crunched volcanic soil. Tau moved forward, his handsstill upraised, clearly in greeting. That trunk touched skyward as if insalute to the man who could be crushed under one foot. 

"_Hodi, eldama!_" For the second time Tau hailed the monster elephantand the trunk raised in silent greeting from one lord of an earth toanother he recognized as an equal. Perhaps it had been a thousand yearssince man and elephant had stood so, and then there had been only warand death between them. Now there was peace and a current of powerflowing from one to the other. Dane sensed this, saw the men on theterrace likewise drawing back from the unseen tie between the medic andthe bull he had so clearly summoned. 

Then Tau's upheld hands came together in a sharp clap and men held theirbreath in wonder. Where the great bull had stood there wasnothing--except rocks in the sun. 

As Tau swung around to face the cat-dog, that creature had no substanceeither. For he fronted no animal but a man, a small, lean man whose lipswrinkled back from his teeth in a snarl. His attendant priests fellback, leaving the spaceman and the witch doctor alone. 

"Lumbrilo's magic is great, " Tau said evenly. "I hail Lumbrilo ofKhatka. " His hand made the open-palmed salute of peace. 

The snarl faded as the man brought his face under control. He stoodnaked, but he was clothed in inherit dignity. And there was power withthat dignity, power and a pride before which even the more physicallyimpressive Chief Ranger might have to give place. 

"You have magic also, outlander, " he replied. "Where walks thislong-toothed shadow of yours now?"

"Where once the men of Khatka walked, Lumbrilo. For it was men of yourblood who long, long past hunted this shadow of mine and made its bodytheir prey. "

"So that it now might have a blood debt to settle with us, outlander?"

"That you said, not I, man of power. You have shown us one beast, I haveshown another. Who can say which of them is stronger when it issuesforth from the shadows?"

Lumbrilo pattered forward, his bare feet making little sound on thestones of the terrace. Now he was only an arm's-length away from themedic. 

"You have challenged me, off-world man. " Was that a question or astatement? Dane wondered. 

"Why should I challenge you, Lumbrilo? To each race its own magic. Icome not to offer battle. " His eyes held steady with the Khatkan's. 

"You have challenged me. " Lumbrilo turned away and then looked back overhis shoulder. "The strength you depend upon may become a broken staff, off-worlder. Remember my words in the time when shadows becomesubstance, and substance the thinnest of shadows!"

III

"You are truly a man of power!"

Tau shook his head in answer to that outburst from Asaki. 

"Not so, sir. Your Lumbrilo is a man of power. I drew upon his power andyou saw the results. "

"Deny it not! What we saw never walked this world. "

Tau slung the strap of a trail bag over his shoulder. "Sir, once men ofyour blood, men who bred your race, hunted the elephant. They took histusks for their treasure, feasted upon his flesh--yes, and died beneaththe trampling of his feet when they were unlucky or unwary. So there isthat within you which can even now be awakened to remember _eldama_ inhis might when he was king of the herd and need fear nothing save thespears and cunning of small, weak men. Lumbrilo had already awakenedyour minds to see what he willed you to see. "

"How does he do this?" asked the other simply. "Is it magic that we seenot Lumbrilo but a lion before us?"

"He weaves his spell with the drums, with the chant, by the suggestionhis mind imposes upon yours. And, having woven his spell, he cannotlimit it to just the picture he suggests if ancient racial memoriesraise another. I merely used the tools of Lumbrilo to show you yetanother picture your people once knew well. "

"And in so doing made an enemy. " Asaki stood before a rack of verymodern weapons. Now he made his selection, a silver tube with a stockcurved to fit a man's shoulder. "Lumbrilo will not forget. "

Tau laughed shortly. "No, but then I have merely done as you wished, have I not, sir? I have focused on myself the enmity of a dangerous man, and now you hope I shall be forced, in self-defense, to remove him fromyour path. "

The Khatkan turned slowly, resting the weapon across his forearm. "I donot deny that, spaceman. "

"Then matters here are indeed serious--"

"They are so serious, " Asaki interrupted, speaking not only to Tau butto the other off-worlders as well, "that what happens now may mean theend of the Khatka that I know. Lumbrilo is the most dangerous game Ihave faced in a lifetime as a hunter. He goes, or we draw his fangs--orelse all that I am, all I have labored here to build, will be sweptaway. To preserve this I will use any weapon. "

"And I am now your weapon, which you hope will be as successful as thatneedler you are carrying. " Tau laughed again, without much humor. "Letus hope I shall prove as effective. "

Jellico moved out of the shadows. It was just after dawn, and thegrayness of the vanishing night still held in the corners of the armory. Deliberately he took his own stand before the arms racks and chose ashort-barreled blaster. Only when its butt was cupped in his hand did heglance at his host. 

"We came guesting, Asaki. We have eaten salt and bread under this roof. "

"On my body and my blood it is, " returned the Khatkan grimly. "I shallgo down to the blackness of Sabra before you do, if the flames of deathare against us. " From his belt he flipped loose his knife and offeredthe hilt to Jellico. "My body for a wall between you and the dark, Captain. But also understand this: to me, what I do now is greater thanthe life of any one man. Lumbrilo and the evil behind him must be rootedout. There was no trickery in my invitation!"

They stood eye to eye, equal in height, in authority of person, and thatindefinable something which made them both masters in their owndifferent worlds. Then Jellico's hand went out, his fingertip flickedthe hilt of the bared blade. 

"There was no trickery, " he conceded. "I knew that your need was greatwhen you came to the _Queen_. "

Since both the captain and Tau appeared to accept the situation, Dane, not quite understanding it all, was prepared to follow their lead. Andfor the moment they had nothing more in plan than to visit the Zoborupreserve. 

They went by flitter--Asaki, one of his Hunter pilots, and the threefrom the _Queen_--lifting over the rim of mountains behind thefortress-palace and speeding north with the rising sun a flaming ball tothe east. Below, the country was stark--rocks and peaks, deep purpleshadows marking the veins of crevices. But that was swiftly behind andthey were over a sea of greens, many shades of green, with yellow, blue, even red cutting into the general verdant carpet of treetops. Anotherchain of heights and then open land, swales of tall grass already burntyellow by the steady sun. There was a river here, a crazy, twistedstream coiling nearly back upon itself at times. 

Once more broken land, land so ravished by prehistoric volcanic actionthat it was a grotesque nightmare of erosion-whittled outcrops andmesas. Asaki pointed to the east. There was a dark patch widening outinto a vast wedge. 

"The swamp of Mygra. It has not yet been explored. "

"You could air map it, " Tau began. 

The Chief Ranger was frowning. "Four flitters have been lost tryingthat. Com reports fail when they cross that last mountain ridgeeastward. There is some sort of interference which we do not yetunderstand. Mygra is a place of death; later we may be able to travelalong its fringe and then you shall see. Now--" He spoke to the pilot inhis own tongue and the flitter pointed up-nose at an angle as theyclimbed over the highest peak they had yet seen in this mountainousland, to reach at last a country of open grass dotted with small foreststands. Jellico nodded approvingly. 

"Zoboru?"

"Zoboru, " Asaki assented. "We shall go up to the northern end of thepreserve. I wish to show you the roosts of the fastals. This is theirnesting season and the sight is one you will long remember. But we shalltake an eastern course; I have two Ranger stations to check on the way. "

It was after they left the second station that the flitter swungfarther out eastward, again climbing over the chain of heights to sightone of the newly discovered wonders the staff at the last station hadreported--a crater lake. 

And the flitter skimmed down across water which was a rich emerald inhue, filling the crater from one rock wall to the other with no beach atthe foot of those precipitant cliffs. As the machine arose to clear thefar wall, Dane tensed. One of his duties aboard the _Queen_ was flitterpilot for planetwise trips. And ever since they had taken off thatmorning he had unconsciously flown with the Khatkan pilot, anticipatingeach change or adjustment of the controls. Now he felt that sluggishresponse to the other's lift signal, and instinctively his own hand wentout to adjust a power feed lever. 

They made the rise, were well above the danger of the cliff wall. Butthe machine was not responding properly. Dane did not need to watch thepilot's swiftly moving hands to guess that they were in trouble. And hisslight concern deepened into something else as the flitter began to dropnose again. In front of him, Captain Jellico shifted uneasily, and Daneknew that he, too, was alerted. 

Now the pilot had plunged the power adjuster to the head against thecontrol board. But the nose of the flitter acted as if it wereoverweighted or magnetically attracted by the rocks below. The bestefforts of the man flying it could not keep it level. They were beingdrawn earthward, and all the pilot could do only delayed the inevitablecrack-up. The Khatkan was turning the machine north to avoid what laybelow, for here a long arm of the Mygra swamp clasped about the foot ofthe mountain. 

The Chief Ranger spoke into the mike of the com unit while the pilotcontinued to fight against the pull which was bringing them down. Nowthe small machine was below the level of the volcanic peak which cradledthe lake, and the mountain lay between them and the preserve. 

Asaki gave a muffled exclamation, slapped the com box, spoke moresharply into the mike. It was apparent he was not getting the resultshe wanted. Then with a quick glance about he snapped an order:

"Strap in!"

His Terran companions had already buckled the wide webbing beltsintended to save them from crash shock. Dane saw the pilot push thebutton to release fend cushions. In spite of his pounding heart, a smallfraction of his brain recognized the other's skill as the Khatkan took acourse to bring them down on a relatively level patch of sand andgravel. 

Dane raised his head from the shelter of his folded arms. The ChiefRanger was busy with the pilot, who lay limply against the controls. Captain Jellico and Tau were already pulling at the buckles of theirprotective crash belts. But one look at the front of the flitter toldDane that it would not take to the air again without extensive repairs. Its nose was bent up and back, obscuring the forward view completely. However, the pilot had made a miraculously safe landing considering theterrain. 

Ten minutes later, the pilot restored to consciousness and the gash inhis head bandaged, they held a council of war. 

"The com was off, too. I did not have a chance to report before thecrash, " Asaki put the situation straightly. "And our exploring partieshave not yet mapped this side of the range; it has a bad reputationbecause of the swamp. "

Jellico measured the heights now to their west with resigned eyes. "Looks as if we climb. "

"Not here, " the Chief Ranger corrected him. "There is no passing throughthe crater lake region on foot. We must travel south along the edge ofthe mountain area until we do find a scalable way into the preserveregion. "

"You seem very certain we are not going to be rescued if we stay righthere, " Tau observed. "Why?"

"Because I'm inclined to believe that any flitter that tries to reach usmay run into the same trouble. Also, they have no com fix on us. It willbe at least a day or more before they will even begin to count usmissing, and then they will have the whole northern portion of thepreserve to comb; there are not enough men here--I can give you amultitude of reasons, Medic. "

"One of which might be sabotage?" demanded Jellico. 

Asaki shrugged. "Perhaps. I am not loved in some quarters. But there mayalso be something fatal to flitters here as there is over Mygra. Wethought the crater lake district safely beyond the swamp influence, butit may not be so. "

But you took the chance of traveling over it, Dane thought, though hedid not comment aloud. Was this another of the Chief Ranger's attemptsto involve them in some private trouble of his own? Though todeliberately smash up a flitter and set them all afoot in thiswilderness was a pretty drastic move. 

Asaki had started to unload emergency supplies from the flitter. Theyeach had a trail bag for a pack. But when the pilot staggered over topull out a set of stass belts and Jellico began to uncoil them, theChief Ranger shook his head. 

"With the feeder beam shut off by the mountains, I fear those will nolonger work. "

Jellico tossed one on the crumpled nose of the flitter and punched itsbutton with the tip of the needler barrel. Then he threw a rock at thedangling belt. The stone landed, taking the wide protective band with itto the ground. That force field which should have warded off the missilewas not working. 

"Oh, fine!" Tau opened his trail bag to pack concentrates. Then hesmiled crookedly. "We aren't signed in for killing licenses, sir. Do youpay our fines if we are forced to shoot a hole through something thatdisputes the right of way?"

To Dane's surprise, the Chief Ranger laughed. "You are off preserve now, Medic Tau. The rules do not cover wild land. But I would suggest we nowhunt a cave before nightfall. "

"Lions?" asked Jellico. 

Dane, remembering the black and white beast Lumbrilo had presented, didnot enjoy that thought. They had--his gaze went from man to man checkingweapons--the needler Asaki carried, and another the pilot had slung byits carrying strap over his shoulder. Tau and the captain both werearmed with blasters and he had a fire ray and a force blade, bothconsidered small arms but deadly enough perhaps even to dampen a lion'senthusiasm for the chase. 

"Lions, graz, rock apes, " Asaki fastened the mouth of his trail bag. "All are hunters or killers. The graz send out scouts, and they are bigand formidable enough to have no enemies. Lions hunt with intelligenceand skill. Rock apes are dangerous, but luckily they cannot keep silentwhen they scent their prey and so give one warning. "

As they climbed up-slope from the flitter, Dane, looking back, saw thatperhaps Asaki was right in his belief that they had better try to helpthemselves rather than wait for rescue. Putting aside the excuse offearing another crack-up, the wrecked flitter made no outstanding markon the ground. The higher they climbed, the less it could bedistinguished from the tumble of rocks about it. 

He had lagged a little behind and, when he hurried to catch up, foundJellico standing with his distance vision lenses to his eyes, directingthem toward that shadow marking the swamp. As the younger spacemanreached him, the captain lowered the glasses and spoke:

"Take your knife, Thorson, and hold it close to that rock--over there. "He pointed to a rounded black knob protruding from the soil a little offtheir path. 

Dane obeyed, only to have the blade jerk in his hand. And when heloosened his hold in amazement, the steel slapped tight against thestone. 

"Magnetic!"

"Yes. Which might explain our crash. Also this. " Jellico held out afield compass to demonstrate that its needle had gone completely mad. 

"We can use the mountain range itself for a guide, " Dane said with moreconfidence than he felt. 

"True enough. But we may have trouble when we head west again. " Jellicolet the lenses swing free on their cord about his neck. "If we werewrecked on purpose"--his mouth tightened and the old blaster burn on hischeek stretched as did his jaw set--"then someone is going to answer alot of questions--and fast!"

"The Chief Ranger, sir?"

"I don't know. I just don't know!" The captain grunted as he adjustedhis pack and started on. 

If fortune had failed them earlier, she smiled on them now. Asakidiscovered a cave before sundown, located not too far from a mountainstream. The Ranger sniffed the air before that dark opening as theHunter pilot shed his equipment and crept forward on his hands andknees, his head up and his nostrils expanding as he, too, tested thescent from the cave mouth. 

Scent? It was closer to a stench, and one ripe enough to turn thestomach of an off-worlder. But the Hunter glanced back over his shoulderand nodded reassuringly. 

"Lion. But old. Not here within five days at least. "

"Well enough. And even old lion scent will keep away rock apes. We'llclean some and then we can rest undisturbed, " was his superior'scomment. 

The cleaning was easy for the brittle bedding of dried bracken and grassthe beast had left burned quickly, cleansing with both fire and smoke. When they raked the ashes out with branches, Asaki and Nymani brought inhandfuls of leaves which they crumpled and threw on the floor, spreadingan aromatic odor which banished most of the foulness. 

Dane, at the stream with the canteens to fill, chanced upon a small poolwhere there was a spread of smooth yellow sand. Knowing well the manyweird booby traps one might stumble into on a strange world, the Terranprospected carefully, stirring up the stand with a stick. Sighting notso much as a water insect or a curious fish, he pulled off his boots, rolled up his breeches and waded in. The water was cool and refreshing, though he dared not drink it until the purifier was added. Then, withthe filled canteens knotted together by their straps, he put on hisboots and climbed to the cave where Tau waited with water tablets. 

Half an hour later Dane sat cross-legged by the fire, turning a spitstrung with three small birds Asaki had brought in. One foot closer tothe heat began to tingle and he eased off his boot; his cramped toessuddenly seeming to have doubled in size. He was staring wide-eyed atthese same toes, puffed, red, and increasingly painful to the touch, when Nymani squatted beside him, inspected his foot closely, and orderedhim to take off his other boot. 

"What is it?" Dane found that shedding the other boot was a minortorture in itself. 

Nymani was cutting tiny splinters, hardly thicker than a needle, from astick. 

"Sand worm--lays eggs in flesh. We burn them out or you have bad foot. "

"Burn them out!" Dane echoed, and then swallowed as he watched Nymaniadvance a splinter to the fire. 

"Burn them, " the Khatkan repeated firmly. "Burn tonight, hurt sometomorrow; all well soon. No burn--very bad. "

Dane ruefully prepared to pay the consequences of his first brush withthe unpleasant surprises Khatka had to offer. 

IV

Dane regarded his throbbing feet morosely. Nymani's operations withburning splinters had been hard to take, but he had endured them withoutdisgracing himself before the Khatkans, who appeared to regard such amishap as just another travel incident. Now, with Tau's salve soothingthe worst of the after affects, the Terran was given time to reflectupon his own stupidity and the fact that he might now prove a drag onthe whole party the next morning. 

"That's queer. .. . "

Dane was startled out of the contemplation of his misery to see themedic on his knees before their row of canteens, the vial of waterpurifier held to the firelight for a closer inspection. 

"What's the matter?"

"We must have hit with a pretty hard thump back there. Some of thesepills are powder! Have to guess about the portion to add. " With the tipof his knife blade Tau scraped a tiny amount of pill fragments into eachwaiting canteen. "That should do it. But if the water tastes a littlebitter, don't let it bother you. "

Bitter water, Dane thought, trying to flex his still swollen toes, wasgoing to be the least of his worries in the morning. But he determinedthat his boots should go on at daybreak, and he would keep on his feetas long as the others did, no matter how much it cost him. 

And when they set out shortly after daybreak, wanting to move as far asthey could before the heat hours when they must rest, the going was nottoo bad. Dane's feet were tender to the touch, but he could shufflealong at the tail of the procession with only Nymani playing rear guardbehind him. 

Jungle lay before them and bush knives began to swing, clearing theirpath. Dane took his turn with the rest at that chore, thankful that thebusiness of cutting their way through that mass of greenery slowed themto a pace he could match--if not in comfort, then by willpower. 

But the sand worms were not the only troubles one could encounter onKhatka. Within an hour Captain Jellico stood sweating and speaking hismind freely in the native tongues of five different planets while Tauand Nymani worked as a team with skinning knives. They were not flayingthe spaceman, but they came near to that in places as they worried achoice selection of tree thorns out of his arm and shoulder. The captainhad been unfortunate enough to trip and fall into the embrace of a veryunfriendly bush. 

Dane inspected a fallen tree for evidence of inimical wild life, andthen rested his blanket between him and it as a protecting cushionbefore he sat down. These trees were not the towering giants of the trueforests, but rather oversized bushes which had been made into walls bytwined vines. Brilliant bursts of flowers were splotches of vivid color, and the attendant insect life was altogether too abundant. Dane tried totally his immunity shots and hoped for the best. At the moment hewondered why anyone would want to visit Khatka, let alone pay someastronomical sum for the privilege. Though he could also guess that theplush safari arranged for a paying client might be run on quitedifferent lines from their own present trek. 

How _could_ a tracker find his way through this? With the compassesplaying crazy tricks into the bargain! Jellico knew that the compasseswere off, yet the captain had followed Asaki's lead without question, sohe must trust the Ranger's forest craft. But Dane wished they were clearon the mountain side again. 

Time had little meaning in that green gloom. But when they workedthrough to meet rock walls again, the sun said it was well into theafter part of the day. They sheltered for a breather under the droopinglimbs of one of the last trees. 

"Amazing!" Jellico, his torn arm in a sling across his chest, camedown-slope from the higher point where he had been using the distancelenses. "We struck straight across and cut off about ten miles by thatjungle jog. Now I believe all that I've heard of your people's abilityto cross wilderness and not lose their built in 'riding beams, ' sir. With the compasses out, I'll admit I've been nourishing a healthy set ofdoubts. "

Asaki laughed. "Captain, I do not question your ability to flit fromworld to world, or how you have learned to set up trade with strangehumans and non-humans alike. To each his own mystery. On Khatka everyboy before he becomes a man must learn to navigate the jungle, and withno instruments to help him, only what lies in here. " He touched histhumb to his forehead. "So through generations we have developed ourhoming instincts. Those who did not, also did not live to father otherswho might have had the same lack. We are hounds who can run on a scent, and we are migrators who have better than a compass within our ownbodies. "

"Now we take to climbing again?" Tau surveyed the way before themcritically. 

"Not at this hour. That sun on the upward slopes can cook a man's skinwere he to touch any rock. We wait. .. . "

Waiting for the Khatkans was a chance to sleep. They curled up on theirlight blankets. But the three spacemen were restless. Dane would haveliked to have taken off his boots, but feared he could not replace them;and he could tell from the way the captain shifted his position thatJellico was in pain too. Tau sat quietly, staring at nothing Dane couldsee, unless it was a tall rock thrust out of the slope like a fingerpointing skyward. 

"What color is that rock?"

Surprised, Dane gave the stony finger closer attention. To him it wasthe same color as most of the other rocks, a weathered black which incertain lights appeared to carry a brownish film. 

"Black, or maybe dark brown?"

Tau looked past him to Jellico. The captain nodded. 

"I'd agree with that. "

Tau cupped his hands over his eyes for a moment and his lips moved as ifhe were counting. Then he took his hands away and stared up-slope. Danewatched the medic's eyelids blink slowly. "Nothing but black or brown?"Tau pressed. 

"No. " Jellico supported his injured arm upon his knees, leaning forward, as intent upon the designated rock as if he expected it to assume somefar more startling appearance. 

"Queer, " Tau said to himself, and then added briskly, "You're right, ofcourse. That sun can play tricks with one's eyes. "

Dane continued to watch the finger rock. Maybe strong sunlight couldplay tricks, but he could see nothing odd about that rough lump. Andsince the captain asked no questions of Tau, he did not quite want toeither. 

It was perhaps a half-hour later, and the medic and Jellico had bothsuccumbed to the quiet, the heat, and their own fatigue, when Dane didsight a movement up-slope. The throbbing in his feet was worse now thathe had nothing to occupy his mind but his own troubles, and he wassitting facing the finger rock. 

Was that what Tau had seen earlier? That quick movement around the sideof the rough pillar? But if so, why the question of color? There it wasagain! And now, centering all his attention on that one point, theTerran picked out the outline of a head--a head grotesque enough to besomething conjured out of Lumbrilo's sorcerer's imagination. Had Danenot seen its like among the tri-dee prints in Captain Jellico'scollection, he would have believed that his eyes were playing tricks. 

It was a bullet-shaped head, embellished by two out-sized prick ears, the hair-tufted pointed tips of which projected well above the top ofthe skull. Round eyes were set deeply in sunken pits. The mouth was aswinish snout from which lolled a purple tongue, though the rest of thatgargoyle head was very close in color to the rock against which it halfrested. 

Dane had no doubts that the rock ape was spying upon the small camp. Having heard tales of those semi-intelligent animals--the mostintelligent native creatures of Khatka--most of which were concernedwith their more malignant characteristics, Dane was alarmed. That lurkercould be an advance scout of some pack. And a pack of rock apes, if ableto surprise their prey, were formidable opponents. 

Asaki stirred, sat up. And that round head above turned to follow theChief Ranger's every move. 

"Above . .. By the finger rock . .. To the right. .. . " Dane kept his voiceclose to a whisper. When he saw the sudden constriction of muscle acrossthe Khatkan's bare shoulders, he knew that the other had heard andunderstood. 

Only, if Asaki had spotted the rock ape, he did not betray hisknowledge. The Khatkan got lithely to his feet. Then one of those feetstirred Nymani into the instant wakefulness of the wilderness-trainedman. 

Dane slid his hand about the bole of the tree and touched Jellico, watched the captain's gray eyes open with a similar awareness. Asakipicked up his needler. Weapon in hand, he whirled and fired almost inone connected movement. It was the fastest shot Dane had ever seen. 

The gargoyle head lifted away from the rock, and then turned to one sideas its body, somehow vaguely obscene in its resemblance to the humanform, fell away, to sprawl limply down-slope. 

Though the dead rock ape had not had a chance to give tongue, there camea cry from above, a coughing, deep-throated hawking. Down the steepincline bumped a round white ball, bouncing past the tumbled carcass ofthe ape, sailing up into the air, to strike and burst open a few feetaway. 

"Back!" With one arm Asaki sent Jellico, his nearest neighbor, tumblingback into the jungle. Then the Chief Ranger pumped a stream of needlerays into the remains of the ball. A shrill, sweet humming arose as redmotes, vivid as molten copper in the sunlight, climbed on wings beatingtoo fast to be seen. 

The debris of the nest smoked into nothing. But no needle ray could hopeto stop all the poisonous army issuing forth from it, fighting mad, toseek any warm-blooded creature within scenting distance. The men threwthemselves into the brush, rolling in the thick mold of the vegetabledecay on the ground, rubbing its moist plaster over their bodies infrantic haste. 

Red-hot fire, far worse than any of the splinter torment Dane hadundergone the night before, pierced between his shoulders. He rolled onhis back, shoving himself along, both to kill the fire-wasp and coat thesting with cooling mold. Cries of pain told him that he was not the onlysufferer, as all dug hands into the slimy stuff under them and slappedit over their faces and heads. 

"Apes. .. . " That half shout got through to alert the men on the junglefloor. True to their nature, the rock apes, now streaming downhill, werecoughing their challenges, advertising their attack. And it was onlythat peculiarity of their species which saved their intended victims. 

The apes came forward, partially erect, at a shambling run. The firsttwo, bulls close to six feet, went down under fire from Asaki's needler. A third somehow escaped, swerving to the left, and came bounding at anangle toward Dane. The Terran jerked free his force blade as that swinesnout split wide to show greenish tusks and the horrible stench of thecreature's body made him gasp. 

A taloned paw clawed at him eagerly, slipped from his slime-covered bodyjust as he brought the force blade up. Foul breath coughed in his faceand he stumbled back as the heavy body of the ape crashed against him, cut in half by the weapon. To Dane's sickened horror the paws stillclawed for him, the fangs still gnashed as he rolled free of the mangledbody and somehow got to his feet. 

The roar of a blaster, of two blasters, drowned out the clamor of theapes as Dane drew his fire ray, set his shoulders against a tree boleand prepared to fight it out. He fired, saw a smaller and more nimbleenemy go down screeching. Then there were none left on their shaggyfeet, though some on the ground dragged themselves forward, stillstriving to reach the men. 

Dane slapped a fire-wasp from his leg. He was glad of the support of thetree at his back as the smell of the ape's blood drenching him fromchest level down, and the mess on the ground, made his stomach churn. 

When he could control his retching, he straightened. To his relief hesaw that all the others were on their feet, apparently unharmed. ButTau, catching sight of the younger spaceman, gasped and started for him. 

"Dane! What did they do?"

His junior laughed a little hysterically. "Not mine. .. . " He swabbed witha handful of grass at his bloodied breeches and blundered on into thesunlight. 

Nymani found them a foam-flecked stream below a miniature falls wherethe swift current prevented the lurking of sand worms. They strippedeagerly, cleaning first themselves and then their fouled clothing whileTau tended the wealth of fire-wasp stings. There was little he could doto relieve the swelling and pain, until Asaki produced a reed-like plantwhich, chopped in sections, yielded a sticky purple liquid that dried onthe skin as a tar gum--the native remedy. So, glued and plastered, theyclimbed away from the water and prepared to spend the night in a hollowbetween two leaning rocks, certainly not as snug as the cave but afortress of sorts. 

"And credit-happy space hoppers pay a fortune for an outing like this!"Tau commented bitterly, hunching well forward so that a certain stungportion of his anatomy would not come in contact with the rock beneathhim. 

"Hardly for this, " Jellico replied, and Dane saw Nymani grinone-sidedly, his other cheek puffed and painted sticky purple. 

"We do not always encounter apes and fire-wasps in the same day, "supplied the Chief Ranger. "Also, guests at the preserves wear stassbelts. "

Jellico snorted. "I don't think you'd get any repeats from your clientsotherwise! What do we meet tomorrow? A herd of graz on stampede, orsomething even more subtle and deadly?"

Nymani got up and walked a little way from their rock shelter. He turneddown-slope and Dane saw his nostrils expand as they had when he hadinvestigated the cave. 

"Something is dead, " he said slowly. "A very large something. Or else--"

Asaki strode down to join his men. He gave a curt nod and Nymani skiddedon down the mountain side. 

"What is it?" Jellico asked. 

"It might be many things. There is one I hope it is not, " was the ChiefRanger's somewhat evasive reply. "I will hunt a labbla--there was freshspoor at the stream. " He set off along their back trail to return a halfhour later, the body of his kill slung across one shoulder. He wasskinning it when Nymani trotted back. 

"Well?"

"Death pit, " supplied the Hunter. 

"Poachers?" Jellico inquired. 

Nymani nodded. Asaki continued his task, but there was a glint in hisdark eyes as he butchered with sure and expert strokes. Then he glancedat the shadow extending beyond the rocks. 

"I, too, would see, " he told Nymani. 

Jellico arose, and Dane, interested, followed. Some five minutes laternone of them needed the native keenness of smell to detect the presenceof some foulness ahead. The odor of corruption was almost tangible inthe sultry air. And it grew worse until they stood on the edge of a pit. Dane retreated hurriedly. This was as bad as the battlefield of the rockapes. But the captain and the two Khatkans stood calmly assessing theslaughter left by the hide poachers. 

"Glam, graz, hoodra, " Jellico commented. "Tusks and hides--the full lineof trade stuff. "

Asaki, his expression bleak, stepped back from the pit. "Day oldcalves, old ones, females--all together. They kill wantonly and leavethose 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 poachers can enter Mygra, then we can follow!"

But not now, Dane protested silently. Certainly Asaki did not mean that_they_ were to track outlaws into swamps the Khatkan had already labeledunexplored death traps!

V

Sitting up, Dane stared wide-eyed into the dark. A handful of glowingcoals, guarded by rocks, was the center of their camp. He hunched up tothat hardly knowing why he moved. His hands were shaking, his skin dampwith sweat no heat produced. Yet, now that he was conscious of thenight, the Terran could not remember the nightmare from which he hadjust awakened, though he was left with a growing apprehension which hecould not define. What prowled out there in that dark? Walked themountain side? Listened, spied and waited?

Dane half started to his feet as a form did move into the dim light ofthe fire. Tau stood there, regarding him with sober intensity. 

"Bad dream?"

The younger man admitted to that with a nod, partly against his will. 

"Well, you aren't the only one. Remember any of it?"

With an effort, Dane looked away from the encircling dark. It was as ifthe fear which had shaken him awake, now embodied, lurked right there. 

"No. " He rubbed sleep-smarting eyes. 

"Neither did I, " Tau remarked. "But both of 'em must have beenjet-powered. "

"I suppose one could expect to have nightmares after yesterday. " Daneadvanced the logical explanation, yet at the same time something deepinside him denied every word of it. He had known nightmares before; noneof them had left this aftertaste. And he wanted no return of sleeptonight. Reaching to the pile of wood he fed the fire as Tau settleddown beside him. 

"There is something else. .. . " the medic began, and then fell silent. Dane did not press him. The younger man was too busy fighting a growingdesire to whirl and aim the fire ray into that darkness, to catch in itswithering blast that lurking thing he could _feel_ padded there, bidingits time. 

Despite his efforts Dane did drowse again before morning, wakingunrefreshed, and, to his secret dismay, with no lessening of his odddislike for the country about them. 

Asaki did not suggest that they trail the poachers into the morass ofMygra. Instead the Chief Ranger was eager to press on in the oppositedirection, find a way over the range to the preserve where he couldassemble a punitive force to deal with the outlaws. So they began anupward climb which took them away from the dank heat of the lowlands, into the parched blaze of the sunbaked ledges above. 

The sun was bright, far too bright, and there were few shadows left. YetDane, stopping to drink sparingly from his canteen, could not lose thatsense of eyes upon him, of being tracked. Rock apes? Cunning as thosebeasts were, it was against their nature to trail in utter silence, tobe able to carry through a long-term project. Lion, perhaps?

He noted that Nymani and Asaki took turns at rear guard today, and thateach was alert. Yet, oddly enough, none of them mentioned the uneasinessthey must all share. 

They had a dry climb, finding no mountain stream to renew their watersupply. All being experienced in wilderness travel, they made a mouthfulof liquid go a long way. When the party halted slightly before midday, canteens were still half full. 

"_Haugh!_"

They jerked up, hands on weapons. A rock ape, its hideous body clearlyseen here, capered, coughed, spat. Asaki fired from the hip and thething screeched, clawed at its chest where the dark blood spewed out, and raced for them. Nymani cut the beast down and they waited tenselyfor the attack of the thing's tribe, which should have followed theabortive lunge on the part of their scout. But there wasnothing--neither sound nor movement. 

What did follow froze them all momentarily. That mangled body began tomove again, drew itself together, crawled toward them. Dane knew that itwas impossible that the creature could live with such wounds. Yet thebeast advanced, its head lolling on its hunched shoulders so that theeyes were turned blindly up to the full glare of the sun, while itcrawled to reach the man it could not see. 

"Demon!" Nymani dropped his needler, shrank back against the rocks. 

As the thing advanced, before their eyes the impossible happened. Thosegaping wounds closed, the head straightened on the almost invisibleneck, the eyes glared once more with life, and slaver dripped from theswine snout. 

Jellico caught up the needler Nymani had dropped. With a coolness Daneenvied, the captain shot. And for the second time the rock apecollapsed, torn to ribbons. 

Nymani screamed, and Dane tried to choke back his own cry of horrifiedprotest. The dead thing put on life for the second time, crawled, gotsomehow to its feet, healed itself, and came on. Asaki, his facegreenish-pale, stepped out stiffly as if each step he took was forced bytorture. He had dropped his needler. Now he caught up a rock as large ashis own head, raised it high with arms on which the muscles stood outlike ropes. He hurled the stone, and Dane heard as well as saw themissile go home. The rock ape fell for the third time. 

When one of those taloned paws began to move again, Nymani broke. Heran, his screams echoing thinly in the air, as the thing lurched up, thegory mess of its head weaving about. If his feet would have obeyed him, Dane might have followed the Khatkan. As it was, he drew his ray andaimed it at that shambling thing. Tau struck up the barrel. 

The medic's face was livid; there was the same horror in his eyes. Buthe moved out to front that monster. 

A spot of shadow coalesced on the ground, deepened in hue, took onsubstance. Crouched low facing the rock ape, its haunches quivering fora deadly spring, narrowed green eyes holding on its prey, was a blackleopard. 

The tiny forward and backward movements of its body steadied, and itarched through the air, brought down the ape. A pitting, snarling tanglerolled across the slope--and was gone!

Asaki's hands shook as he drew them down his sweating face. Jellicoreadied a second clip in the needler mechanically. But Tau was swayingso that Dane leaped to take the shock of the other's weight as hecollapsed. Only for a moment did the medic hang so, then he struggled tostand erect. 

"Magic?" Jellico's voice, as controlled as ever, broke the silence. 

"Mass hallucination, " Tau corrected him. "Very strong. "

"How!" Asaki swallowed and began again. "How was it done?"

The medic shook his head. "Not by the usual methods, that is certain. And it worked on us--on me--when we weren't conditioned. I don'tunderstand that!"

Dane could hardly believe it yet. He watched Jellico stride to where thetangle of struggling beasts had rolled, saw him examine bare ground onwhich no trace of the fight remained. They must accept Tau'sexplanation; it was the only sane one. 

Asaki's features were suddenly convulsed with a rage so stark that Danerealized how much a veneer was the painfully built civilization ofKhatka. 

"_Lumbrilo!_" The Chief Ranger made of that name a curse. Then with avisible effort he controlled his emotions and came to Tau, looming overthe slighter medic almost menacingly. 

"How?" he demanded for the second time. 

"I don't know. "

"He will try again?"

"Not the same perhaps--"

But Asaki had already grasped the situation, was looking ahead. 

"We shall not know, " he breathed, "what is real, what is not. "

"There is also this, " Tau warned. "The unreal can kill the believer justas quickly as the real!"

"That I know also. It has happened too many times lately. If we couldonly find out how! Here are no drums, no singing--none of the tricks totangle a man's mind that he usually uses to summon his demons. Sowithout Lumbrilo, without his witch tools, how does he make us see whatis not?"

"That we must discover and speedily, sir. Or else we shall be lost amongthe unreal and the real. "

"You also have the power. You can save us!" Asaki protested. 

Tau drew his arm across his face. Very little of the normal color hadreturned to his thin, mobile features. He still leaned against Dane'ssupporting arm. 

"A man can do only so much, sir. To battle Lumbrilo on his own ground isexhausting and I can not fight so very often. "

"But will he not also be exhausted?"

"I wonder. .. . " Tau gazed beyond the Khatkan to the barren ground whereleopard and rock ape had ceased to be. "This magic is a tricky thing, sir. It builds and feeds upon a man's own imagination and inner fears. Lumbrilo, having triggered ours, need not strive at all, but let usourselves raise that which will attack us. "

"Drugs?" demanded Jellico. 

Tau gave a start sufficient to take him out of Dane's loose hold. Hishand went to the packet of aid supplies which was his own care, his eyesround with wonder and then shrewdly alert. 

"Captain, we disinfected those thorn punctures of yours. Thorson, yourfoot salve. .. . But, no, I didn't use anything--"

"You forget, Craig, we all had scratches after that fight with theapes. "

Tau sat down on the ground. With feverish haste he unsealed his medicalsupplies, laid out some containers. Then delicately he opened each, examined its contents closely by eye, by smell, and two by taste. Whenhe was done he shook his head. 

"If these have been in any way meddled with, I would need laboratoryanalysis to detect it. And I don't believe that Lumbrilo could hidetraces of his work so cleverly. Or has he been off-planet? Had much todo with off-worlders?" he asked the Chief Ranger. 

"By the nature of his position he is forbidden to space voyage, to haveany close relationship with any off-worlder. I do not think, medic, hewould choose your healing substances for his mischief. There would onlybe chance to aid him then in producing the effects he wants. Thoughthere is often call for first aid in travel, he could not be _certain_you would use any of your drugs on this trip to the preserve. "

"And Lumbrilo _was_ certain. He threatened something such as this, "Jellico reminded them. 

"So it would be something which we would all use, which we had to dependupon. .. . "

"The water!" Dane had been holding his own canteen ready to drink. Butas that possible explanation dawned in his mind, he smelled instead oftasted the liquid sloshing inside. There was no odor he could detect. But he remembered Tau commenting on the powdered purifier pills at theirfirst camp. 

"That's it!" Tau dug further into his kit, brought out the vial of whitepowder with its grainy lumps. Pouring a little into the palm of his handhe smelled it, touched it with the tip of his tongue. "Purifier andsomething else, " he reported. "It could be one of half a dozen drugs, orsome native stuff from here which we've never classified. "

"True. There are drugs we have found here. " Asaki scowled down at thegreen mat of jungle. "So our water is poisoned?"

"Do you always purify it?" Tau asked the Chief Ranger. "Surely duringthe centuries since your ancestors landed on Khatka you must haveadapted to native water. You couldn't have lived otherwise. We must usethe purifier, but must you?"

"There is water and water. " Asaki shook his own canteen, his scowlgrowing fiercer as the gurgle from its depths was heard. "From springson the other side of the mountains we drink--yes. But over here, thisclose to the Mygra swamps, we have not done so. We may have to chanceit. "

"Do you think we are literally poisoned?" Jellico bored directly to theheart of their private fears. 

"None of us have been drinking too heavily, " Tau observed thoughtfully. "And I don't believe Lumbrilo had outright killing in mind. How long theeffect will last I have no way of telling. "

"If we saw one rock ape, " Dane wondered, "why didn't we see others? Andwhy here and now?"

"That!" Tau pointed ahead on the trail Asaki had picked for theirascent. For a long moment Dane could see nothing of any interest thereand then he located it--a finger of rock. It did not point directlyskyward this time, in fact it slanted so that its tip indicated theirback trail. Yet in outline the spire was very similar to that outcropfrom which the real rock ape had charged them the day before. 

Asaki exclaimed in his own tongue and slapped his hand hard against thestock of the needler. 

"We saw that and so again we saw an ape also! Had earlier we beencharged by graz or jumped by a lion in such a place, then again we wouldhave been faced by graz or lion here!"

Captain Jellico gave a bark of laughter colored only by the mostsardonic humor. "Clever enough. He merely leaves it to us to select ourown ghost and then repeat the performance in the next proper setting. Iwonder how many rocks shaped like that one there are in these mountains?And how long will a rock ape continue to pop out from behind each one wedo find?"

"Who knows? But as long as we drink this water we're going to continueto have trouble; I feel safe in promising that, " Tau replied. He putthe vial of doctored purifier into a separate pocket of his medical kit. "It may be a problem of how long we can go without water. "

"Perhaps, " Asaki said softly. "Only not all the water on Khatka comesrunning in streams. "

"Fruit?" Tau asked. 

"No, trees. Lumbrilo is not a hunter, nor could he be certain when andwhere his magic would go to work. Unless the flitter was deliberatelysabotaged, he was planning for us to use our canteens in the preserve. That is lion country and there are long distances between springs. Thisis jungle below us and there is a source there I think we can safelytap. But first I must find Nymani and prove to him that this is trulydeviltry of a sort, but not demon inspired. "

He was gone, running lightly down-slope in the direction his hunter hadtaken, and Dane spoke to Captain Jellico. 

"What's this about water in trees, sir?"

"There is a species of tree here, not too common, with a thickenedtrunk. It stores water during the rainy season to live on in the hotmonths. Since we are in the transition period between rains, we couldtap it--if we locate one of the trees. How about that, Tau? Dare wedrink that without a purifier?"

"Probably a choice of two evils, sir. But we have had our preventiveshots. Personally, I'd rather battle disease than take a chance on amind-twisting drug. You can go without water just so long. .. . "

"I'd like to have a little talk with Lumbrilo, " remarked Jellico, themildness in his voice very deceptive. 

"I'm _going_ to have a little talk with Lumbrilo, if and when we see himagain!" promised Tau. 

"What are our chances, sir?" Dane asked. He screwed the cap back on hiscanteen, his mouth feeling twice as dry since he knew he dared notdrink. 

"Well, we've faced gambles before. " Tau sealed the medical kit. "I'dlike to see one of those trees before sundown. And I don't want to faceanother pointed rock today!"

"Why the leopard?" asked Jellico reflectively. "Another case of usingflame to fight fire? But Lumbrilo wasn't among those present to beimpressed. "

Tau rubbed his hand across his forehead. "I don't really know, sir. Maybe I could have made the ape vanish without a counter projection, butI don't think so. With these hallucinations it is better to battle onevision against another for the benefit of those involved. And I can'teven tell you why I selected a leopard--it just flashed into mind asabout the fastest and most deadly animal fighter I could recall at thatmoment. "

"You'd better work out a good list of such fighters. " Jellico's grimhumor showed again. "I can supply a few if you need them. Not that Idon't share your hope we won't see any more trigger rocks. Here comesAsaki with his wandering boy. "

The Chief Ranger was half-leading, half-supporting his hunter, andNymani seemed only half-conscious. Tau got to his feet and hurried tomeet them. It would appear that their search for the water tree would bedelayed. 

VI

They withdrew to a spot hacked from the edge of the jungle, leaving ascreen of green between them and the traitorous up-slope. But within thefew hours of daylight left them, it was proven that Asaki had beenoverly optimistic in his hopes of discovering a water tree. They werenow in a narrow tongue of land between the range and the swamps, andthis territory was limited. Nymani, still shaken, was of little help, and the spacemen did not dare to strike out into unexplored land alone. 

So they mouthed dry concentrates and dared not drink. Dane was temptedto pour out the liquid in his canteen. Water so close to hand was acontinual torment. And, now that they were away from the heights and thepossibility of more finger-shaped rocks, surely the threat in thatmoisture was small in comparison to the needs of his body. Only thatcaution which was drilled into every Free Trader supplied a brake to histhirst. 

Jellico drew the back of his hand across cracked lips. "Suppose weshould draw lots--some of us drink, one or two not. Could we manage thatway until we were over the mountains?"

"I wouldn't want to chance it, unless we are left with no other choice. There is no way of telling how long the drug works. Frankly, right nowI'm not even sure I could detect a hallucination for very long underthese conditions, " was Tau's discouraging verdict. 

If any of them slept that night, they did so only in snatches. Theapprehension which had come with the previous night was back, intensified, and that lurking, indefinable fear rode them hard. 

They were shaken out of their private terrors shortly after dawn. Therewere always sounds to be heard in the jungle: the cries of unseen birds, the crash of some tree eaten alive by parasitic sapping. But what brokenow was no bird call, no isolated tree falling. A trumpeting roar, thecrackling smash of vegetation, heralded a real menace. Asaki spun toface northward, though there was nothing to be seen there except theunshaken wall of the jungle. 

"Graz! Graz on stampede!" Nymani joined his superior. 

Jellico arose swiftly and Dane read on the captain's face theseriousness of this. The off-worlder turned to his own men with a sharporder. "On your feet! We may have to move on the double. Up-mountain?"he demanded of the Chief Ranger. 

The other was still listening, not only with his ears but with the wholeof his tense body. Three of the deer-like creatures they had hunted forfood broke out of the green wall, fled past the men as if the latter wasinvisible. And behind them, the hunted now and not the hunter, came alion, its strikingly marked black-and-white hide dramatic in the lightof the morning. It showed fangs in a snarl and then was gone in one hugebound. More deer things, scurrying of other small creatures, moving toofast for clear identification, and behind them the fury of destructionwhich marked the headlong advance of Khatka's largest mammals slammingthrough the jungle. 

They had started up-slope when Nymani cried out. A white bulk, hard todistinguish in that light against the gray of the earth, headed afterthem. Dane had a fleeting glimpse of curled tusks, of an open mouth, raw-red and wide enough to engulf his whole head, of shaggy legs drivingat an unbelievable pace. Asaki snapped a beam from the needler. Thewhite monster roared and came on. They dived for the scant cover offeredas the graz bull died, not two yards away from the Chief Ranger, itsheavy body skidding along the earth with the force of its speed as itwent down. 

"That did it!" Jellico sighted coolly with his blaster as a second bull, fighting mad, tore from the jungle and pounded at them. Behind it athird tusked head thrust out of the brush, large eyes searched for anenemy. Dane studied the dead bull, but the animal did not come to lifethis time. These were not hallucinations. And the malignancy of the rockapes, the cunning of the native Khatkan lion, were pallid thingscompared to a graz herd on the rampage. 

The second bull yelped with an almost canine complaint as Jellico'sblaster caught it head-on. Blinded, the beast blundered ahead, climbingthe mountain side. The third met a ray from Nymani's needler. But theChief Ranger leaped from behind his sheltering rock to the one where thecaptain had taken refuge and pulled him into the open. 

"They must not corner us here!"

Jellico agreed to that. "Come on!" he barked to Tau and Dane. 

They fled along a rough way, trying to gain altitude, but finding arising cliff wall which could not be easily climbed. Two more graz wentdown, one badly wounded, one safely dead. Behind them more white headscame from the brush. What original cause had started the stampede thefugitives could not guess, but now the fear and anger of the animalswere centering upon them. 

And, in spite of their efforts, the party was being herded into a pocketbetween the jungle below, where the main body of graz crashed along, anda steep wall. Given time to find the necessary finger and toe holds, aman might climb that wall, but they could not attempt it now. Theportion of ledge on which they ran, stopped to fire, and then ran onagain, angled to the southeast. And so they came to its end quickly, adrop ending in a plain of yellow-gray mud studded with clumps ofbleached vegetation which led, like steppingstones, toward a tangle ofmatted, sickly looking plants and reeds. 

"All right, " Tau faced around, "what do we do now? Space lift? And usingwhat for wings or jets?"

As if the graz could sense that they now had their victims safelycornered, what must have been a goodly segment of the herd hooked theirway from the jungle and started up. Puffing, digging in those sturdylegs which had to take the massive weight of their barrel-shaped bodies, they made their way determinedly up-grade. One might almost believe thatthey had intelligently planned this end for their drive. 

"We go down!" Asaki yelled, and used his needler on the leader of thatclimbing platoon. 

"The brush islands, " Nymani amended. "I show you!" He thrust his needlerat Jellico and was over the edge of the ledge, hanging by his hands andswinging his weight back and forth like a pendulum. At the up-swing ofhis body to the right, he let go and plunged out, landing half acrossone of the reed islets. The Khatkan clawed his way to his knees, gainedhis feet, and leaped for the next bit of solid ground. 

"You, Thorson!" Jellico jerked his head at Dane and the younger spacemanholstered his fire ray, slipped gingerly over the drop and prepared torepeat Nymani's feat as best he could. 

He was not quite as successful with his sidewise swing, landing withonly his forearms across the islet, the rest of his body being swiftlyembedded in what was ooze covered only with a thin crust of driedmatter. The stench of the stuff was sickening, but the fear of beingentrapped in it gave him the necessary impetus to push forward, thoughwhat was meant to be a swift half-dive was more of a worm's progress. Hegrabbed frantically at brittle stems, at coarse grass which cut likeknives at his hands. But some of the material held and he lay face downon a lump which did not give under his weight. 

There was no time to linger; he had to get to the next patch, to freethis dubious landing place for the men embattled on the rise above. Stumbling up, Dane judged the distance with a space-trained eye andjumped to a knob Nymani had already quitted. The Khatkan was more thanhalfway along toward that promise of solid ground which the tangled massof leprous vegetation led to, zigzagging expertly from islet to islet. 

There was a crash and a roar behind. Dane balanced on the third of theminute islands to look back. He saw the lash of blaster fire on the topof the cliff, Tau on his knees on the first of their chain ofsteppingstones, and a graz sprawled head and forequarters in the suckingmuck where it had dived past the two defenders above. Needler andblaster fired together again, and then Jellico swung over the cliff rim. Tau waved vigorously and Dane took off for the next islet, just makingit by lucky chance. 

The rest of the journey he took in a rush, trying not to think ofanything but the necessity of landing on some spot of firm ground. Hislast leap of all was too short, so that he went knee deep in aparticularly evil-smelling pool where yellow scum spattered his breechesand he experienced the insidious pull of the bottomless stuff. A stoutbranch whipped across his shoulder and he caught it. With Nymani's wirystrength on the other end, Dane worked free and sat, white-faced andshivering, on a mat of brush, while the Khatkan hunter turned hisattention to the safety of Tau, the next arrival. 

More fortunate, or more skillful than Dane, the medic made the hop fromthe last tuft without mishap. But he was blowing heavily as he collapsedbeside the other spaceman. Together they watched the progress of theircaptain. 

Safe on the second tussock from the shore, Jellico halted, edgedcarefully around and used the needler Nymani had left with him. A shaggyhead tossed and the bull fronting Asaki on the cliff went down. TheChief Ranger dodged quickly to the right and a second beast rushed outand over, to join its mired comrade in the swamp below. As Jellico shotagain, the Khatkan slung his needler and went over to gain the firstislet. 

One more graz was wounded but luckily it hunched about, turning itsformidable tusks on those that followed, thus keeping the path clear forits enemies. Jellico was making the journey, sure-footedly, with theChief Ranger only one hillock behind. Tau sighed. 

"Someday maybe this will be just another tall tale and we'll all bethought liars when we spout it, " he observed. "That is if we survive totell it. So now which way do we go? If I had my choice it would be up!"

When Dane pulled himself to his feet and surveyed their small refuge, hewas ready to agree to that. For the space, packed with dead and dyingvegetable matter until one sank calf deep, was a triangle with a narrowpoint running east into the swamp. 

"They don't give up easily, do they?" Jellico looked back to the shoreand the cliff. Though the wounded graz bull still held the heightsagainst its fellows, there were others breaking from the jungle on thelower level, wandering back and forth to paw the earth, rip up soil withtheir tusks, and otherwise threaten anyone who would try to return tothe strip they patrolled. 

"They will not, " Asaki answered bleakly. "Arouse a graz and it willtrail you for days; kill any of the herd and you have little hope ofescaping them on foot. "

It would seem now that the swamp was a deterrent to pursuit. The twobeasts that had fallen in the mire moaned in a pitiful rising note. Theyhad ceased to struggle and several of their kind clustered on the shorenear them, calling entreatingly. Asaki took careful aim with the needlerand put one animal after another out of its misery. But the flash ofthose shots angered those on shore to a higher pitch of rage. 

"No going back, " he said. "At least not for several days. "

Tau slapped a black, four-winged insect which had settled on his arm, its jaws wide open for a sampling bite. "We can't very well perch hereuntil they forget all about us, " he pointed out. "Not without water wecan trust, and with the local wild life ready to test us for tastyeating. "

Nymani had prowled along the swampward point of their island, and now hemade his report. 

"There is more high land to the east. Perhaps it will give us a bridgeacross. "

At that moment Dane doubted his ability to make any more leaps fromisland to island. And it would seem Tau shared his discouragement. 

"I don't suppose you could discourage our friends on shore there with afew more shots?"

Asaki shook his head. "We do not have clips enough to settle a wholeherd. These might retreat from sight but they would be waiting for us inthe bush, and that would mean certain death. We shall have to take theswamp road. "

If Dane had considered their earlier march misery, this was sheertorture. Since footing was never secure, falls were frequent, and withina quarter-hour they were all plastered with evil-smelling slime and mudwhich hardened to rock consistency when exposed to the air. Painful asthis was, it did protect a portion of their bodies from the insects withwhich the swamp was well stocked. 

And, in spite of their efforts to find a way out, the only possiblepaths led them deeper into the center of the unexplored morass. At lastAsaki called a halt and a council to consider retreat. To locate anisland from which they could at least watch the shore appealed verystrongly indeed. 

"We have to have water. " Tau's voice was a harsh croak, issuing out of amask of green mud festooned with trailing weeds. 

"This ground is rising. " Asaki smacked the stock of his needler againstthe surface on which he crouched. "I think perhaps there may be cleanland soon to come. "

Jellico hitched his way up a sapling, now bending under his weight. Through the vision lenses he studied the route ahead. 

"You're right about that, " he called to the Chief Ranger. "There's ashowing of the right sort of green to the left, about half a mile on. And, " he glanced about at the westering sun, "we have about an hour yetof good light in which to make it. I wouldn't try such a run afterdark. "

That promise of green bolstered their weary spirits for a lastexhausting effort. Once again they were faced with a series of isletleaps, and now they carried with them brush culled from the biggertussocks to aid in times of need. 

When Dane scrambled up the last pull, staggered, and went down to hisknees again, he knew he was done. He did not even move at an excited cryfrom Nymani, echoed a moment later by Asaki. It was not until the latterleaned over him, a canteen open in his hand, that Dane aroused a little. 

"Drink!" the Khatkan urged. "We have found a water tree. This is fresh. "

The liquid might have been fresh, but it also had a peculiar taste, which Dane did not note until he had gulped down a generous swallow. Atthat moment he was past caring about anything but the fact that he didhave a portion of drinkable stuff in hand. 

Here the stunted, unnatural growth of the swamplands had given away tothe more normal vegetation of the jungle-clad lowlands. Had they comeclear across the swamp, Dane wondered dully, or was this only a largeisland in the midst of the stinking boglands?

He drank again and regained strength enough to crawl to where hisshipmates lay. It was some time before he was interested in much besidesthe fact that he could drink when he wished. Then he watched Jellicowaver to his feet, his head turned eastward. Tau, too, sat up as ifalerted by the _Queen's_ alarm buzzer. 

The Khatkans were gone, perhaps back to the water tree. But all three ofthe spacemen heard that sound, a far off throbbing rhythm which was avibration as well. Jellico looked to Tau. 

"Drums?"

"Could be. " The medic screwed the cap back on his canteen. "I'd say wehave company--only I'd like to know what kind!"

They might have been mistaken about the drums, but none of them couldhave been mistaken about the bolt which came out of nowhere to slicethrough a tree trunk as a knife might slash wet clay. Blaster--and aparticular type of blaster!

"Patrol issue!" Tau lay flat, squeezing himself against the earth as ifhe wished he could ooze into it. 

Jellico wriggled toward the bush in answer to a low call from Asaki, andthe others made a worm's progress in his wake. Under cover they foundthe Chief Ranger readying his needler. 

"Poacher camp here, " he explained bleakly. "And they know about us. "

"A perfect end to a stinking day, " remarked Tau dispassionately. "Wemight have guessed something of this sort was waiting. " He tried to rubaway some of the dried clay coating his chin. "But do poachers usedrums?"

The Chief Ranger scowled. "That is what Nymani has gone to find out. "

VII

Darkness closed in while they waited for Nymani's return. There had beenno further attack from the blaster wielder; perhaps he was only tryingto pin them down where they were. Out over the swamp, weird patches ofphosphorescence moved in small ghostly clouds, and bright dots ofinsects with their own built-in lighting systems flashed spark-fashionor sailed serenely on regular flight plans. At night the wonder of theplace was far removed from the squalid reality of the day. They chewedon their rations, drank sparingly of the water, and tried to keep alertto any sight or sound. 

That monotonous undertone, which might or might not be drums, continuedas a basic hum to the noises of the night, drowned out at intervals by asplash, a mutter or cry from some swamp creature. Beside Dane, Jellicostiffened, moved his blaster, as someone wriggled through the brush, trilling softly. 

"Off-worlders, " Nymani reported in gasps to Asaki, "and outlaws, too. They make a hunting sing--tomorrow they march for a killing. "

Asaki rested his chin on his broad forearm. "Outlaws?"

"They show no lord's badge. But each I saw wears a bracelet of three, five, or ten tails. They are Trackers indeed, and Hunters of the best!"

"They have huts?"

"Not so. There are no dwellers in the inners courts here. " Out of habitNymani used the polite term for the women of his race. "I would say theytarry only for the space of a hunt. And on the boots of one I saw saltcrust. "

"Salt crust!" Asaki snapped and half arose. "So that is the type of lurethey use. There must be a saline mire near here to pull game--"

"How many off-worlders?" Jellico broke in. 

"Three who are Hunters, one who is different. "

"How different?" questioned Asaki. 

"He wears upon his body garments which are strange; on his head a roundcovering such as we see upon the off-worlders of the ships--"

"A spaceman!"

Asaki laughed harshly. "Why not? They must have some method oftransporting their hides. "

"You can't tell me, " Jellico returned, "that anyone is able to set aship down in this muck. It would simply be buried for all time. "

"But, Captain, what type of a spaceport does a Free Trader need? Do younot planet your own ship on worlds where there are no waiting cradles, no fitter shops, none of the conveniences such as mark the field Combinemaintains on Xecho?"

"Of course I do. But one does need a reasonably smooth stretch ofterritory, open enough so the tail flames won't start a forest fire. Youdon't ever ride a tail push down in a swamp!"

"Which testifies to a trail out of here, fairly well-traveled, and somekind of a usable landing space not too far away, " Asaki replied. "Andthat could very well serve us. "

"But they know we are here, " Tau pointed out. 

It was Nymani's turn to laugh. "Man from the stars, there is no trail sowell-hidden that a Ranger of the preserves cannot nose it out, nor anyHunter--be he a two or five bracelet veteran--who can keep pinned down adetermined man of the forest service!"

Dane lost interest in the argument at that moment. He was at the edge oftheir line, the nearest to the swamp, and he had been watching patchesof ghostly light flitting above the rank water-weeds. For the past fewmoments those wisps of faded radiance had been gathering into a growinganthropomorphic blot hanging over the morass several yards away. And themisty outlines were now assuming more concrete shape. He watched, unable to believe in what he was seeing. At first the general outline, non-defined as it was, made him think of a rock ape. But there were nopointed ears above the round skull, no snout on the visage turned inprofile toward him. 

More and more patches of swamp luminescence were drawn to that glowingfigure. What balanced there now, as if walking the treacherous surfaceof the swampland, was no animal. It was a man, or the semblance of one, a small, thin man--a man he had seen once before, on the terrace ofAsaki's mountain fortress. 

The thing stood almost complete, its head cocked in what was an attitudeof listening. 

"Lumbrilo!" Dane identified it, still knowing that the witch doctorcould not be standing there listening for them. But, to shake him stillfarther, the head turned at his cry. Only there were no eyes, nofeatures on the white expanse which should have been a face. And somehowthat made the monster more menacing, convincing Dane against sane logicthat the thing _was_ spying on them. 

"Demon!" That was Nymani; and over his sudden quaver, robbed of all theconfidence which had been there only moments earlier, came Asaki'sdemand:

"What stands there, Medic? Tell us that!"

"A whip to drive us out of hiding, sir. As you know as well as I. IfNymani spied upon them, then they have spied upon us in turn. And this, I think, also answers another question. If there is a canker of troubleon Khatka, then Lumbrilo is close to its root. "

"Nymani!" The Chief Ranger's voice was the crack of a lash. "Will youforget again that you are a man, and run crying for shelter against ashaft of light? As this off-world Medic says, Lumbrilo fashions such asthat to drive us into our enemies' hands!"

The shadow thing in the swamp moved, putting its foot forward on surfacewhich would not bear the weight of a human body, taking a deliberatestep and then another, heading for the concealing brush where thefugitives lay. 

"Can you get rid of it, Tau?" Jellico asked in his usual crisp voice. Hemight have been inquiring about some problem aboard the _Queen_. 

"I'd rather get at the source. " There was a grim note in the Medic'sreply. "And to do that I want to look at their camp. "

"Well enough!" Asaki crept back in the brush. 

The ghost of that which was not a man had reached the shore of theisland, stood there, its blank head turned toward them. Weird as it was, now that the first shock of sighting it was over, the spacemen couldaccept and dismiss it as they had not been so able to dismiss thephantom rock ape. 

"If that thing was sent to drive us, " Dane ventured, "wouldn't we beplaying their game by going inland now?"

The Chief Ranger did not pause in his crawl to the left. "I think not. They do not expect us to arrive with our wits about us. Panic-strickenmen are easy to pull down. This time Lumbrilo has overreached himself. Had he not played that game with the rock ape, he might have been ableto stampede us now. "

Though the white thing continued to move inland, it did not changecourse to fall in behind them on the new route. Whatever it was, it didnot possess a mind. 

There was a rustling, faint but distinguishable. Then Dane caughtNymani's whisper. 

"The one left to watch the inland trail does so no longer. We need notfear an alarm from _him_. Also, here is another blaster for our use. "

Away from the open by the swamp, the gloom was deeper. Dane was guidedonly by the noises of the less-experienced Jellico and Tau made in theirprogress. 

They edged down into a small cut, floored with reeds and mud, where someof the moisture from the soggy land about them gathered into a halfpool. Straight through this swale the Khatkans set course. 

The drum beat grew louder. Now there was a glow against the dark--fireahead? Dane squirmed forward and at last gained a vantage point fromwhich to survey the poachers' camp. 

There were shelters erected there, three of them, but they were mainlyroofs of leaves and branches. In two of them were stored bales of hidessewn into plastic cloth, ready to ship. Before the third hut loungedfour off-worlders. And Nymani was very right; one of them wore ship'suniform. 

To the right of the fire was a ring of natives and another man, slightlyapart, who beat the drum. But of the witch doctor there was no sign. AndDane, thinking of that mist-born thing at the swamp's edge, shivered. Hecould believe Tau's explanation of the drug which producedhallucinations back on the mountain side. But how that likenessfashioned of phosphorescence had been sent by an absent man to hunt hisenemies was a eerie puzzle. 

"Lumbrilo is not here. " Nymani's thoughts must have been moving alongthe same path. 

Dane could hear movements in the dark beside him. 

"There's a long-distance com unit in that third hut, " Tau observed. 

"So I see, " Jellico snapped. "Could you reach your men over the mountainwith that, sir?"

"I do not know. But if Lumbrilo is not here, how can he make his imagewalk the night?" the Chief Ranger demanded impatiently. 

"We shall see. If Lumbrilo is not here--he shall come. " And the promisein Tau's tone was sure. "Those off-worlders will have to be out ofaction first. And with that walking thing sent to drive us in, they mustbe waiting for us. "

"If they have sentries out, I will silence them!" promised Nymani. 

"You have a plan?" Asaki's wide shoulders and upheld head showed for aninstant against the light from the camp. 

"You want Lumbrilo, " Tau replied. "Very well, sir, I believe I can givehim to you, and in the doing discredit him with your Khatkans. But notwith the off-worlders free to move. "

The program was not going to be easy, Dane decided. Every one of thepoachers was armed with a Patrol blaster of the latest type, and a smallpart of his mind speculated as to what would be the result of thatinformation conveyed to official quarters. Free Traders and Patrolmendid not always see eye-to-eye over the proper action to be taken on thegalactic frontier. The _Queen's_ crew had had one such brush withauthority in the immediate past. But each realized that the other had animportant role in the general scheme of things, and if it came to aclash between the law and outlaws, Free Traders fought beside thePatrol. 

"Why not give them what they expect--with reservations?" inquiredJellico. "They've set us up to be stampeded into camp, flying ahead ofthat tame ghost of theirs. Suppose we do stampede--after Nymani hasremoved any sentries--stampede so well we sweep right over them? I wantto get at that com unit. "

"You don't think they'll just mow us down as we come in?"

"You delivered a blow to Lumbrilo's pride; he won't be satisfied withjust your burning, " the captain answered Tau, "not if I'm any judge ofcharacter. And we'd furnish hostages of a sort--especially the ChiefRanger. No, if they had wanted to kill us they would have shot us offthose islands when we came here. There would have been no playing aroundwith ghosts and goblins. "

"There is reason in your words. And it is true they would like to haveme, those outlaws down there, " Asaki commented. "I am of the Magawayaand we have pressed always for stronger security methods to be usedagainst such as they. But I do not see how we can take the camp. "

"We won't go in from the front--as they expect us to do. But a try fromthe north, getting at the off-worlders first. .. . Three men causingenough disturbance to cover operations of the other two. .. . "

"So?" There was a moment of silence as the Chief Ranger evaluated that. Then he added a few comments of his own. 

"That off-worlder who wears spaceman's clothing, his weapon is notdrawn, though the others are ready. But I believe that you are right inthinking they expect to be warned by sentries. Those we can see to. Suppose then, Captain, you and I play the fear-crazed men running fromdemons. Nymani will cover us from the dark and your two men--"

Tau spoke up, "Give me leave to flush out our other quarry, sir. Ibelieve I can keep him occupied. Dane, you'll take the drum. "

"Drum?" With his mind on blasters, it was startling to be offered anoise-maker. 

"It's your business to get that drum. And when you get it I want you tobeat out 'Terra Bound. ' You certainly can play that, can't you?"

"I don't understand, " Dane began and then swallowed the rest of hisprotest, knowing that Tau was not going to explain why he needed to havethe hackneyed popular song of the spaceways played in a Khatkan swamp. As a Free Trader he had had quite a few odd jobs handed him during thepast couple of years, but this was the first time he had been ordered toserve as a musician. 

They waited for Nymani through dragging minutes. Surely those in thecamp would expect their arrival soon now? Dane's fire ray was in hishand as he measured the distance to the drummer's stand. 

"It is done, " Nymani whispered from the darkness behind them. Jellicoand the Chief Ranger moved to the left; Tau crept to the right and Danepushed level with the medic. 

"When they move, " Tau's lips were beside his ear, "jump for that drum. Idon't care how you get it, but get it and keep it!"

"Yes, sir!"

There was a wailing cry from the north, a howl of witless fear. Thesingers stopped in mid-note, the drummer paused, his hand uplifted. Danedarted forward in a plunge which carried him to that man. The Khatkandid not have time to rise from his knees as the barrel of the fire rodstruck his head, sending him spinning. Then the drum was cradled in thespaceman's arm, close to his chest, his weapon aimed across it at thestartled natives. 

The crackle of blaster fire, the shrill whine of needlers in action, raised a bedlam from the other end of the camp. Backing up a little, Dane went down on one knee, his weapon ready to sweep over thebewildered natives, the drum resting on the earth against his body. Keeping the fire rod steady, his left hand went to work, not in themuted cadence the Khatkan drummer had chosen, but in hard and vigorousthumps which rolled across the clamor of the fight. There was noforgetting the beat of "Terra Bound" and he delivered it with force, sothat the familiar da-dah-da-da droned loud enough to awaken the wholecamp. 

Dane's move appeared to completely baffle the Khatkan outlaws. Theystared at him, the whites of their eyes doubly noticeable in their darkfaces, their mouths a little agape. As usual the unexpected had driventhem off guard. He dared not look away from that gathering to see howthe fight at the other end of the camp was progressing. But he did seeTau's advance. 

The medic came into the light of the fire, not with his ordinaryloose-limbed spaceman's stride, but mincingly, with a dancing step, andhe was singing to the drum beat of "Terra Bound. " Dane could notunderstand the words, but he knew that they patterned in and out of thedrum beats, weaving a net between singer and listeners as Lumbrilo hadwoven his net on the mountain terrace. 

Tau had them! Had every one of the native outlaws ensnared, so that Danerested his weapon across his knee and took up the lower beat with thefingers of his right hand as well. 

_Da-dah-da-da_. .. . The innocuous repetitive refrain of the original songwhich had been repeating itself in his mind faded, and somehow hecaught the menace in the new words Tau was mouthing. 

Twice the medic shuffled about a circle of his own making. Then hestooped, took a hunting knife from the belt of the nearest Khatkan andheld it point out toward the dark east. Dane would not have believed themedic knew the drill he now displayed, for with no opponent save thedancing firelight he fought a knife duel, feinting, striking, twisting, retreating, attacking, all in time to the beat of the drum Dane was nolonger conscious of playing. And as he strove it was very easy topicture another fighting against him. So that when the knife came up ina vicious thrust which was the finish of his last attack, Dane staredstupidly at the ground, half expecting to see a body lying there. 

Once more Tau ceremoniously saluted with his blade to the east. Then helaid it on the ground and stood astride its gleaming length. 

"Lumbrilo!" His confident voice arose above the call of the drum. "Lumbrilo--I am waiting. "

VIII

Vaguely aware that the clamor at the other end of the camp had diedaway, Dane muted the sound of his drum. Over its round top he couldwatch the Khatkan outlaws; their heads bobbed and swayed in time to thebeat of his fingers. He, too, could feel the pull of Tau's voice. Butwhat would come in answer? That shadowy thing which had been loosed todrive them here? Or the man himself?

To Dane, the ruddy light of the fire dimmed, yet there was no actualdying of those flames which coiled and thrust around the wood. And theacrid scent of burning was thick. How much of what followed was real, how much the product of his tense nerves, Dane was never afterwards ableto tell. In fact, whether all the witnesses there saw the same sightscould be questioned. Did each man, Khatkan and off-worlder, see onlywhat his particular set of emotions and memories dictated?

Something swept in from the east, something which was not as tangible asthe creature born of swamp mist. Rather it came as an unseen menace tothe fire, and all that fire signifies to human kind--security, comradeship, a weapon against the age-old forces of the dangerous night. Was that threat, too, only in their minds? Or had Lumbrilo some power toso shape his hatred?

The unseen was cold; it sapped a man's strength, bit at his brain, weighted his hands and feet, weakened him. It strove to soften him intoclay another could remold. Nothingness, darkness, all that was opposedto life and warmth and reality, arose in the night, gathered togetheragainst them. 

Yet still Tau fronted that invisible wave, his head high. And betweenhis sturdily planted feet the knife gleamed bright with a radiance ofits own. 

"Ahhh--" Tau's voice curled out, to pierce that creeping menace. Then hewas singing again, the cadence of his unknown words rising a littleabove the pattern wrought by the drum. 

Dane forced his heavy hands to continue the beat, his wrists to rise andfall in defiance of that which crept to eat their strength and make themless then men. 

"Lumbrilo! I, Tau, of another star, another sky, another world, bid youcome forth and range your power against mine!" Now there was a sharpernote in that demand, the snap of an order. 

He was answered by another wave of the black negation--stronger, rollingup to smash them down, as a wave in the heavy surf of a wild oceanpounds its force against the beach. This time Dane thought he could seethat dark mass. He tore his eyes away before it took on substance, concentrating on the movements of his hands against the drum head, refusing to believe that hammer of power was rising to flatten them all. He had heard Tau describe such things in the past. But told in familiarquarters on board the _Queen_, such experiences were only stories. Herewas danger unleashed. Yet the medic stood unbowed as the wave broke uponhim in full. 

And, advancing under the crest of that lick of destruction, came itscontroller. This was no ghost drawn from the materials of the swamp;this was a man, walking quietly, his hands as empty as Tau's, yetgrasping weapons none of them could see. 

In the firelight, as the wave receded sullenly, men moaned, lay facedown upon the ground, beat their hands feebly against the earth. But, asLumbrilo came on from the shadows, one of them got to his hands andknees, moving with small tortured jerks. He crawled toward Tau, his headlolling on his shoulders as the head of the dead rock ape had done. Danepatted the drum with one hand while, with the other, he groped for hisfire ray. He tried to shout in warning and found that he could not uttera sound. 

Tau's arm moved, raised from his side, made a circling motion. 

The creeping man, his eyes rolled up in his head until only the whitesgleamed blindly in the limited light, followed that gesture. He drewlevel with the medic, passed beyond toward Lumbrilo, whining as a houndprevented from obeying his master might lament. 

"So be it, Lumbrilo, " Tau said. "This is between you and me. Or do younot dare to risk your power against mine? Is Lumbrilo so weak a one thathe must send another to do his will?"

Raising both hands again the medic brought them down, curling inward, until he stooped and touched them to the ground. When he straightenedonce again the knife was in his grasp and he tossed it behind him. 

The smoke from the fire swirled out in a long tongue, coiled aboutLumbrilo and was gone. A black and white beast stood where the man hadbeen, its tufted tail lashing, its muzzle a mask of snarling hate andblood lust. 

But Tau met that transformation with laughter which was like the lash ofa whip. 

"We both be men, you and I, Lumbrilo. Meet me as a man and keep thosetrickeries for those who have not the clear sight. A child plays as achild, so--" Tau's voice came in a rumble, but Tau was gone. The huge, hairy thing which swayed in his place turned a gorilla's beast visage tohis enemy. For a breathless moment Terran ape confronted Khatkan lion. Then the spaceman was himself again. "The time for games is over, man ofKhatka. You have tried to hunt us to our deaths, have you not? Thereforedeath shall be the portion of the loser now. "

Lion vanished, man stood watching, alertly, as swordsman might faceswordsman with a blood feud lying on their blades. To Dane's eyes theKhatkan made no move. Yet the fire leaped high, as if freshly fed, andflames burst from the wood, flew into the air, red and perilous birds, darting at Tau until they outlined him from the ground under his bootsto an arch over his head. They united and spun faster until Dane, watching with dazzled eyes, saw the wheel become a blur of light, hidingTau within its fiery core. His own wrists ached with the strain of hisdrumming as he lifted one hand and tried to shield his sight from theglare of that pillar of fire. 

Lumbrilo was chanting--a heavy blast of words. Dane stiffened; histraitorous hands were falling into the rhythm of that other song!Straightaway he raised both from the drum head, brought them downin a discordinate series of thumps which bore no relation to eitherthe song Tau wanted or that which Lumbrilo was now crooning. _Thump--thump--thump_--Dane beat it out frantically, belaboring thedrum head as he wanted to sink his fists home on the body of theKhatkan witch doctor. 

The pillar of fire swayed, fluttered as if a wind drove it--and wasgone. Tau, unmarked, smiled. 

"Fire!" He pointed his fingers at Lumbrilo. "Would you try earth, andwater, and air also, wizard? Call hither your whirlwind, up your flood, summon the land to quake. None of those shall bring me down!"

Shapes came flooding out of the night, some monstrous, some human, streaming past Lumbrilo to crowd into the circle of firelight. Some Danethought he knew, some were strangers. Men wearing space uniforms, or thedress of other worlds, women--they strode, wept, mingled with themonsters to laugh, curse, threaten. 

Dane guessed that Lumbrilo sent now against the Terran the harvest ofthe medic's own memories. He shut his eyes against this enforcedintrusion upon another's past, but not before he saw Tau's face, strained, fined to the well-shaped bones beneath the thin flesh, holdingstill a twisted smile as he met each memory, accepted the pain it heldfor him, and set it aside unshaken. 

"This, too, has no power any longer, man who walks in the dark. "

Dane opened his eyes. Those crowding wraiths were fading, losingsubstance. Lumbrilo crouched, his lips drawn back from his teeth, hishatred plain to read. 

"I am not clay to be molded by your hands, Lumbrilo. And now I say thatthe time has come to call an end--"

Tau raised his hands slowly once again, holding them away from his body, palms pointing earthward. And beneath them, on either side of thespaceman, two black shadows gathered on the surface of the ground. 

"You have fettered yourself with your own bounds. As you have been thehunter, so shall you now be the hunted. "

Those shadows were growing as plants might issue from the packed soil ofthe camping ground. When his hands were shoulder high, Tau held themsteady. Now on either side of his tautly held body crouched one of theblack-and-white lions with which Lumbrilo had identified his own brandof magic throughout the year. 

Lumbrilo's "lion" had been larger than life, more intelligent, moredangerous, subtly different from the normal animal it counterfeited. Sonow were these. And both of them raised their heads to gaze intentlyinto the medic's face. 

"Hunt well, brothers in fur, " he said slowly, almost caressingly. "Himwhom you hunt shall grant you sport in the going. "

"Stop it!" A man leaped from the shadows behind the witch doctor. Firelight made plain his off-world dress, and he swung up a blaster, aiming at the nearest of the waiting beasts. That flash struck true, butit neither killed nor even singed the fine fur of the animal's pelt. 

As the blaster's aim was swung from beast to man, Dane fired first. Hisray brought a scream from the other, who dropped his weapon from a badlyseared hand to reel back, cursing. 

Tau waved his hands gently. The great animal heads turned obediently, until the red eyes were set on Lumbrilo. Facing them, the witch doctorstraightened, spat out his hate at the medic:

"I do not run to be hunted, devil man!"

"I think you do, Lumbrilo. For you must taste fear now as you have madeother men drink of it, so that it fills your blood and races throughyour body, clouds your mind to make of you less than a man. You havehunted out those who doubted your power, who stood in your chosen path, whom you wanted removed from the earth of Khatka. Do you doubt that theywait in the last dark for you now, ready to greet you, witch doctor?What they have known, you shall also know. This night you have shown meall that lies in my past that is weak, that was evil, that I may regretor find sorrow for. So shall you also remember through the few hoursleft you. Aye, you _shall_ run, Lumbrilo!"

As he spoke, Tau approached the other, the two black-and-white hunterspacing beside him. Now he stooped and caught up a pinch of soil and spatupon it three times. Then he threw the tiny clod of earth at the witchdoctor. It struck Lumbrilo just above the heart and the man reeled underwhat might have been a murderous blow. 

The Khatkan broke then, completely. With a wailing cry he whirled andran, crashing into the brush as one who runs blindly and without hope. Behind him the two beasts leaped noiselessly together and all three weregone. 

Tau swayed, put his hand to his head. Dane kicked away the drum, arosefrom his cramped position stiffly to go to him. But the medic was notyet done. He returned to stand over the prostrate native hunters and heclapped his hands sharply. 

"You are men, and you shall act as men henceforth. That which was, is nolonger. Stand free, for the dark power follows him who misused it, andfear no longer eats from your basins, drinks from your cups, or liesbeside you on the sleep mats. "

"Tau!" Jellico's shout reached them over the cries of the rousingKhatkans. But Dane was there first, catching the medic before he slumpedto the ground; but he was dragged with that dead weight until he satwith the medic's head on his shoulder, the other's body resting heavilyagainst him. For one horror-filled moment Dane feared that he did indeedhold a dead man, that one of the outlaw Hunters must have struck a lastblow for his discredited leader. Then Tau sighed and began to breathedeeply. Dane glanced up, amazed, at the captain. 

"He's asleep!"

Jellico knelt and his hand went to test heart beat, then to touch themedic's worn and dirty face. "Best thing for him, " he said briskly. "He's had it. "

It took some time to get the facts of their triumph sorted out. Two ofthe off-worlder poachers were dead. The other and the spaceman wereprisoners, while Nymani rounded up in addition the man Dane had burnedto save Tau. When the younger spaceman returned from making the mediccomfortable in the shelter, he found Asaki and Jellico holding animpromptu court of inquiry. 

The dazed native Hunters had been expertly looped together by Nymaniand, a little apart from them, the off-worlders were under examination. 

"An I-C man, eh?" Jellico, smoothing a mud-spattered chin with a grimedhand, regarded the latest arrival measuringly. "Trying to run in andbreak a Combine charter, were you? You'd better spill the facts; yourown head office will disown you, you ought to know that. They never backany failures in these undercover deals. "

"I want medical attention, " snapped the other, cradling his seared handto his chest. "Or do you plan to turn me over to these savages?"

"Seeing as how you tried to blast our medic, " replied the captain with agrin which was close to shark-like, "he may not feel much like patchingup those fingers of yours. Stick 'em in where they have no business, andthey're apt to get burned. At any rate he's not going to look at 'emuntil he's had a chance to rest. I'll give you first aid. And while I'mworking we'll talk. I-C going into the poaching trade now? That news isgoing to please Combine; they have no use for you boys anyway. "

His answer was lurid and uninformative. But the uniform tunic the otherwore could not be so easily explained away. Dane, worn out, stretchedhis aching length on a pile of mats and lost all interest in theargument. 

 * * * * *

Two days later they stood once more on the same terrace where Lumbrilohad wrought his magic and met his first defeat. This time no lightningplayed along the mountain ridges and the blaze of the sun was so brightand clear that one could hardly believe in the fantastic happenings ofthat swamp clearing where men had fought with weapons not made by hands. The three from the _Queen_ moved away from the parapet to meet the ChiefRanger as he came down the stairs. 

"A messenger has just arrived. The hunter was hunted indeed, and hisgoing was witnessed by many--though they did not see those which huntedhim. Lumbrilo is dead; he came to his end by the Great River. "

Jellico started. "But that is almost fifty miles from the swamp, on thisside of the mountain!"

"He was hunted and he fled--as you promised, " Asaki said to Tau. "Youmade strong magic, off-world man. "

The medic shook his head slowly. "I but turned his own methods againsthim. Because he believed in his power, that same power, reflected back, broke him. Had I been facing one who did not believe. .. . " He shrugged. "Our first meeting set the pattern. From that moment he feared a littlethat I could match him, and his uncertainty pierced a hole in hisarmor. "

"Why on earth did you want 'Terra Bound?'" burst out Dane, still seekingan explanation for that one small mystery among the others. 

Tau chuckled. "In the first place, that blasted tune has haunted us allfor so long that I knew its rhythm was probably the one you could keepto without hardly knowing that you were beating it out. And, in thesecond place, its alien pattern was a part of our particular background, to counteract Lumbrilo's native Khatkan music, which was certainly a bigfactor in _his_ stage setting. He must have believed that we would notfind out about the drugged water and so would be prepared for anyfantasy he cared to produce. When they saw us coming out over the swampthey counted us easy takings. His practice had always been withKhatkans, and he judged us by their reactions to stimuli he knew wellhow to use. So he failed. .. . "

Asaki smiled. "Which was good for Khatka but ill for Lumbrilo and thoseusing him to make mischief here. The poacher and the outlaw Hunters willmeet with our justice, which I do not believe they will relish. But theother two, the spaceman and the company agent, are to be sent to Xechoto face Combine authorities. It is my thought that those will not acceptkindly the meddling of another company in their territory. "

Jellico grunted. "Kindness and Combine are widely separated in suchmatters. But we can now take passage on the same ship as yourprisoners--"

"But, my friend, you have not yet seen the preserve. I assure you that_this_ time there shall be no trouble. We have several days yet beforeyou must return to your ship--"

The captain of the _Queen_ held up his hand. "Nothing would give megreater pleasure than to inspect the Zoboru preserve, sir--next year. Asit is, my holiday is over and the _Queen_ is waiting for us on Xecho. Also, permit me to send you some tapes dealing with the newest types offlitters--guaranteed against flight failures. "

"Yes, guaranteed, " Tau added guilelessly, "not to break down, losecourse, or otherwise disrupt a pleasant excursion. "

The Chief Ranger threw back his head and his deep-chested laughter wasechoed from the heights above them. "Very well, Captain. Your mail runwill bring you back to Xecho at intervals. Meanwhile I shall study yoursales tapes concerning the non-expendable flitters. But you _shall_visit Zoboru--and pleasantly, very pleasantly, I assure you, Medic Tau!"

"I wonder, " Tau muttered and Dane heard. "Just now the quiet of deepspace is a far, far more entrancing proposition!"

 +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's Notes | | | | | | One copyright symbol was replaced with "(c)". | | The repetition "too too" and the writing of the word | | "steppingstones" without hyphen is as in the original. | | | | The following typos have been corrected. | | | | Typo Correction | | | | breath breathe | | an on | | Yes. Sir! Yes, sir! | | Terran Terra | | visiting; visiting. | | Terran Terra | | qraz graz | | telaported teleported | | Sinbad Sindbad | | supersition superstition | | remarkble remarkable | | was were | | waves weaves | | missive missile | | throbbling throbbing | | "_Haugh!_ "_Haugh!_" | | succesful successful | | reading readying | | Nohingness Nothingness | | blatt blast | | pleace please | | Bu But | | | | | | "Andrew North" was one of the pseudonyms used by | | "Andre Norton". | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+