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Updated: May 18, 2025
He had seen how the animals could drive hunted split-horns; they would do as well with the ponies. Kaydessa was safe, the coyotes had made that clear by the fact that they had joined the attacking party an hour earlier. With Eskelta and Manulito she was on her way back to the north. Travis supposed he should be well pleased that their reckless plan had succeeded as well as it had.
"That is so. Tsoay, Eskelta, Kawaykle, they watch the trails. There is the pass, two other ways men can come on foot. But who can watch the air?" "The Tatars say the Reds dare not bring the 'copter into the mountains. After they first landed they lost a flyer in a tricky air-current flow up there. They have only one left and won't risk it. If only they aren't reinforced before we can move!"
Yet Kaydessa had had wit enough to take his knife! Could this be another case where one race was less affected by a mind machine than the other? Just as the Apaches had not been governed by the Red caller, so the Tatars might not be as sensitive to the Redax. "She is a strong one, that woman one worth many ponies." Eskelta reverted to the old measure of a wife's value. "That is true!"
Then she begins to think. She climbs " He lifted one finger to the slope behind them. "She goes behind a rock to watch under cover. When Fox comes from the ship with Eskelta, again she climbs. Buck lets himself be seen, so she moves east, as we wish " "And now?" questioned Travis. "She is keeping to the high ways; almost she thinks like one of the People on the war trail.
Travis gasped, and started to crawl for the break. Eskelta loomed over him, pulled him up in haste. They reached the opening but did not climb through. Travis was uncertain as to whether he could make that descent yet, and Eskelta was obeying orders in not venturing out too soon. Below, the ground was bare. There was no sign of the Apaches, though they were in hiding there and none of Kaydessa.
Tsoay came first, an angry raking of four parallel scratches down his left cheek. And behind him Buck and Eskelta shoved the prisoner, urging her on with a show of roughness which did not descend to actual brutality. Her long braids had shaken loose, and a sleeve was torn, leaving one slender arm bare. But none of the fighting spirit had left her.
Travis agreed emphatically and then was annoyed at the broadening of Jil-Lee's smile. Abruptly he changed the subject. "Manulito is setting the booby trap in the ship." "That is well. He and Eskelta will remain here, and you with them." "Not so! We must go to the towers " Travis protested. "I thought," Jil-Lee cut in, "that you believed the weapons of the old ones too dangerous for us to use."
When they reached a spot near-by Travis thought of a certain rock beyond the pass then one of the coyotes was to go ahead to the ship. Let the Apaches there know.... Manulito and Eskelta should also be warned by the sentry along the peaks, but additional alerting would not go amiss. Those four with Kaydessa they must reach the trap! "What was that?" Buck rolled out of his blanket.
Only the memory of the towers and the threat of the Reds finding and exploiting the treasure there kept him going. Eskelta went first, climbing to the tear. Travis cut the ropes binding Kaydessa's wrists and gave her a slight slap between the shoulders. "Climb, woman!" His anxiety made that a harsh order and she climbed.
Travis was amazed that she had vanished so quickly. Still uneasy from the emanation within, they perched within the shadow of the break until Travis thought that the fugitive had a good five-minute start. Then he nodded a signal to Eskelta. By the time they reached ground level Travis felt a warm wetness spreading under his shielding palm and he knew the wound had opened.
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