"Herrera and I don"t have your aristocratic att.i.tude toward wealth," Stellman said with exaggerated patience. "Herrera and I have the childish desire to fill every nook and cranny with treasure. Gold nuggetsin the fuel tanks, emeralds in the flour cans, diamonds a foot deep on deck. And this is just the place for it. All manner of costly baubles are lying around just begging to be picked up. We want to be disgustingly, abysmally rich, Paxton."
Paxton hadn"t been listening. He was staring intently at a point near the edge of the trail. In a low voice, he said, "That tree just moved."
Herrera burst into laughter. "Monsters, I suppose," he sneered.
"Be calm," Stellman said mournfully. "My boy, I am a middle-aged man, overweight and easily frightened. Do you think I"d stay here if there were the slightest danger?"
"There! It moved again!"
"We surveyed this planet three months ago," Stellman said. "We found no intelligent beings, no dangerous animals, no poisonous plants, remember? All we found were woods and mountains and gold and lakes and emeralds and rivers and diamonds. If there were something here, wouldn"t it have attacked us long before?"
"I"m telling you I saw it move," Paxton insisted.
Herrera stood up. "This tree?" he asked Paxton.
"Yes. See, it doesn"t even look like the others. Different texture-"
In a single synchronized movement, Herrera pulled a Mark II blaster from a side holster and fired three charges into the tree. The tree and all underbrush for ten yards around burst into flame and crumpled.
"All gone now," Herrera said.
Paxton rubbed his jaw. "I heard it scream when you shot it."
"Sure. But it"s dead now," Herrera said soothingly. "If anything else moves, you just tell me, I shoot it.
Now we find some more little emeralds, huh?"
Paxton and Stellman lifted their packs and followed Herrera up the trail. Stellman said in a low, amused voice, "Direct sort of fellow, isn"t he?"
Slowly Drog returned to consciousness. The Mirash"s flaming weapon had caught him in camouflage, almost completely unshielded. He still couldn"t understand how it had happened. There had been no premonitory fear-scent, no snorting, no snarling, no warning whatsoever. The Mirash had attacked with blind suddenness, without waiting to see whether he was friend or foe.
At last Drog understood the nature of the beast he was up against.
He waited until the hoofbeats of the three bull Mirash had faded into the distance. Then, painfully, he tried to extrude a visual receptor. Nothing happened. He had a moment of utter panic. If his central nervous system was damaged, this was the end. He tried again. This time, a piece of rock slid off him, and he was able to reconstruct.
Quickly he performed an internal scansion. He sighed with relief. It had been a close thing. Instinctively he had quondicated at the flash moment and it had saved his life.
He tried to think of another course of action, but the shock of that sudden, vicious, unpremeditated a.s.sault had driven all Hunting Lore out of his mind. He found that he had absolutely no desire to encounter the savage Mirash again.
Suppose he returned without the stupid hide? He could tell the Patrol Leader that the Mirash were all females, and therefore unhuntable. A Young Scouter"s word was honored, so no one would question him, or even check up.
But that would never do. How could he even consider it?
Well, he told himself gloomily, he could resign from the Scouters, put an end to the whole ridiculous business; the campfires, the singing, the games, the comradeship . . .
This would never do, Drog decided, taking himself firmly in hand. He was acting as though the Mirash were antagonists capable of planning against him. But the Mirash were not even intelligent beings. No creature without tentacles had ever developed true intelligence. That was Etlib"s Law, and it had never been disputed.
In a battle between intelligence and instinctive cunning, intelligence always won. It had to. All he had to do was figure out how.
Drog began to track the Mirash again, following their odor. What colonial weapon should he use? A small atomic bomb? No, that would more than likely ruin the hide.
He stopped suddenly and laughed. It was really very simple, when one applied oneself. Why should he come into direct and dangerous contact with the Mirash? The time had come to use his brain, his understanding of animal psychology, his knowledge of Lures and Snares.
Instead of tracking the Mirash, he would go to their den.
And there he would set a trap.
Their temporary camp was in a cave, and by the time they arrived there it was sunset. Every crag and pinnacle of rock threw a precise and sharp-edged shadow. The ship lay five miles below them on the valley floor, its metallic hide glistening red and silver. In their packs were a dozen emeralds, small, but of an excellent color.
At an hour like this, Paxton thought of a small Ohio town, a soda fountain, a girl with bright hair. Herrera smiled to himself, contemplating certain gaudy ways of spending a million dollars before settling down to the serious business of ranching. And Stellman was already phrasing his Ph.D. thesis on extraterrestrial mineral deposits.
They were all in a pleasant, relaxed mood. Paxton had recovered completely from his earlier attack of nerves. Now he wished an alien monsterwould show up-a green one, by preference-chasing a lovely,scantily clad woman.
"Home again," Stellman said as they approached the entrance of the cave. "Want beef stew tonight?" It was his turn to cook.
"With onions," Paxton said, starting into the cave. He jumped back abruptly. "What"s that?"
A few feet from the mouth of the cave was a small roast beef, still steaming hot, four large diamonds, and a bottle of whiskey.
"That"s odd," Stellman said. "And a trifle unnerving."
Paxton bent down to examine a diamond. Herrera pulled him back.
"Might be b.o.o.by-trapped."
"There aren"t any wires," Paxton said.
Herrera stared at the roast beef, the diamonds, the bottle of whiskey. He looked very unhappy.
"I don"t trust this," he said.
"Maybe thereare natives here," Stellman said. "Very timid ones. This might be their goodwill offering."
"Sure," Herrera said. "They sent to Terra for a bottle of Old s.p.a.ce Ranger just for us."
"What are we going to do?" Paxton asked.
"Stand clear," Herrera said. "Move "way back." He broke off a long branch from a nearby tree and poked gingerly at the diamonds.
"Nothing"s happening," Paxton said.
The long gra.s.s Herrera was standing on whipped tightly around his ankles. The ground beneath him surged, broke into a neat disk fifteen feet in diameter and, trailing root-ends, began to lift itself into the air.
Herrera tried to jump free, but the gra.s.s held him like a thousand green tentacles.
"Hang on!" Paxton yelled idiotically, rushed forward and grabbed a corner of the rising disk of earth. It dipped steeply, stopped for a moment, and began to rise again. By then Herrera had his knife out, and was slashing the gra.s.s around his ankles. Stellman came unfrozen when he saw Paxton rising past his head.
Stellman seized him by the ankles, arresting the flight of the disk once more. Herrera wrenched one foot free and threw himself over the edge. The other ankle was held for a moment, then the tough gra.s.s parted under his weight. He dropped headfirst to the ground, at the last moment ducking his head and landing on his shoulders. Paxton let go of the disk and fell, landing on Stellman"s stomach.
The disk of earth, with its cargo of roast beef, whiskey and diamonds, continued to rise until it was out of sight.
The sun had set. Without speaking, the three men entered their cave, blasters drawn. They built a roaringfire at the mouth and moved back into the cave"s interior.
"We"ll guard in shifts tonight," Herrera said.
Paxton and Stellman nodded.
Herrera said, "I think you"re right, Paxton. We"ve stayed here long enough."
"Too long," Paxton said.
Herrera shrugged his shoulders. "As soon as it"s light, we return to the ship and get out of here."
"If," Stellman said, "we are able to reach the ship."
Drog was quite discouraged. With a sinking heart he had watched the premature springing of his trap, the struggle, and the escape of the Mirash. It had been such a splendid Mirash, too. The biggest of the three!
He knew now what he had done wrong. In his eagerness, he had overbaited his trap. Just the minerals would have been sufficient, for Mirash were notoriously mineral-tropic. But no, he had to improve on pioneer methods, he had to use food stimuli as well. No wonder they had reacted suspiciously, with their senses so overburdened.
Now they were enraged, alert, and decidedly dangerous.
And a thoroughly aroused Mirash was one of the most fearsome sights in the Galaxy.
Drog felt very much alone as Elbonai"s twin moons rose in the western sky. He could see the Mirash campfire blazing in the mouth of their cave. And by direct perception he could see the Mirash crouched within, every sense alert, weapons ready.
Was a Mirash hide really worth all this trouble?
Drog decided that he would much rather be floating at the five-thousand-foot level, sculpturing cloud formations and dreaming. He wanted to sop up radiation instead of eating nasty old solid food. And what use was all this hunting and trapping, anyhow? Worthless skills that his people had outgrown.
For a moment he almost had himself convinced. And then, in a flash of pure perception, he understood what it was all about.
True, the Elbonaians had outgrown their compet.i.tion, developed past all danger of compet.i.tion. But the Universe was wide, and capable of many surprises. Who could foresee what would come, what new dangers the race might have to face? And how could they meet them if the hunting instinct was lost?
No, the old ways had to be preserved, to serve as patterns; as reminders that peaceable, intelligent life was an unstable ent.i.ty in an unfriendly Universe.
He was going to get that Mirash hide, or die trying! The most important thing was to get them out of that cave. Now his hunting knowledge had returned to him.
Quickly, skillfully, he shaped a Mirash horn.
"Did you hear that?" Paxton asked.
"I thought I heard something," Stellman said, and they all listened intently.
The sound came again. It was a voice crying, "Oh, help, help me!"
"It"s a girl!" Paxton jumped to his feet.
"Itsounds like a girl," Stellman said.
"Please, help me," the girl"s voice wailed. "I can"t hold out much longer. Is there anyone who can help me?"
Blood rushed to Paxton"s face. In a flash he saw her, small, exquisite, standing beside her wrecked sports-s.p.a.cer (what a foolhardy trip it had been!) with monsters, green and slimy, closing in on her. And thenhe arrived, a foul alien beast.
Paxton picked up a spare blaster. "I"m going out there," he said coolly.
"Sit down, you moron!" Herrera ordered.
"But you heard her, didn"t you?"
"That can"t be a girl," Herrera said. "What would a girl be doing on this planet?"
"I"m going to find out," Paxton said, brandishing two blasters. "Maybe a s.p.a.celiner crashed, or she could have been out joyriding, and-"
"Siddown!" Herrera yelled.
"He"s right," Stellman tried to reason with Paxton. "Even if a girlis out there, which I doubt, there"s nothing we can do."
"Oh, help, help, it"s coming after me!" the girl"s voice screamed.
"Get out of my way," Paxton said, his voice low and dangerous.
"You"re really going?" Herrera asked incredulously.
"Yes! Are you going to stop me?"
"Go ahead." Herrera gestured at the entrance of the cave.
"We can"t let him!" Stellman gasped. "Why not? His funeral," Herrera said lazily.
"Don"t worry about me," Paxton said. "I"ll be back in fifteen minutes-with her!" He turned on his heel and started toward the entrance. Herrera leaned forward and, with considerable precision, clubbed Paxton behind the ear with a stick of firewood. Stellman caught him as he fell.
They stretched Paxton out in the rear of the cave and returned to their vigil. The lady in distress moaned and pleaded for the next five hours. Much too long, as Paxton had to agree, even for a movie serial.
A gloomy, rain-splattered daybreak found Drog still camped a hundred yards from the cave. He saw the Mirash emerge in a tight group, weapons ready, eyes watching warily for any movement.
Why had the Mirash horn failed? The Scouter Manual said it was an infallible means of attracting the bull Mirash. But perhaps this wasn"t mating season.
They were moving in the direction of a metallic ovoid which Drog recognized as a primitive spatial conveyance. It was crude, but once inside it the Mirash were safe from him.