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With his aid the other crawled out, lay panting. Rynch grabbed the man's shoulder, jerked him away from the body of the female water-cat. He was sure he had seen a telltale scurrying around the smaller of the dead cubs. The man straightened, glanced toward Rynch who was backing off, the needler up and ready between them. "My turn to ask why?" Then his gaze followed Rynch's.
He continued to keep them whirling by means of waving hand and arm, but there was enough light to show Rynch the fingers of his other hand, busy on the front panel of the box he wore. That fingering stopped, then Rynch's head came up as he heard a very faint sound. Not a beast's cry or was it? Again those fingers moved on the panel. Was the other sending a message by that means?
But the crystal continued to roll at the same pace. "Move!" Hume's other hand hit Rynch's shoulder, knocked him forward in an impetuous shove which nearly took him off his feet. Both men began to run. "What what are those things?" Rynch appealed between panting breaths. "I don't know and I don't like their looks. They're between us and the safari camp if we keep to the river "
The watchers! Was the other out to spy on them? That idea made sense. And in the meantime he would let the other past him, follow along behind until he was far enough from the camp so that his friends could not interfere then, they would have a meeting! Rynch's fingers balled into fists. He would find out what was real, what was a dream in this crazy, mixed up mind of his!
Rynch's hands went to his face, he crouched forward on his knees. That all was true, he could prove it he would prove it! There was the strong-jaw's den back there, somewhere on the rise where he had left the snapped haft of the spear he had broken in his fall. If he could find the den, then he would be sure of the reality of everything else. He had only had a very real dream that was it!
"You think about it, Brodie, think about it with care. Come back to camp with me and " "No!" Rynch interrupted. "You go your way, I go mine from here on." Again the other laughed. "Not so simple as all that, boy. We've started something which can't just be turned off as easily as you snap down a switch." He took a step or two in Rynch's direction. The younger man brought up the needler.
Three dead water-cats were near the man trapped in the pit. Bait to draw these voracious eaters straight to the prisoner. Rynch's empty stomach heaved. He swung around, ran across the grassy verge of the upper bank, hoping he was not too late.
In spite of his devious game here on Jumala, Hume was Guild educated and Rynch was willing to leave such decisions to him. The other held out the ray tube. "Take this, cover me, but don't use it until I say so. Understand?" He waited only for Rynch's nod before he started, at a deliberate pace which matched that of the beasts, back through the river shallows to meet them.
The box struck one of the dead water-cats, flashed as fur and flesh were singed. Rynch watched dispassionately before he caught the needler, jerking it away from the prisoner. The man eyed him steadily, and his expression did not alter even when Rynch swung the off-world weapon to center its sights on the late owner. "Suppose," Rynch's voice was rusty sounding in his own ears, "we talk now."
"But don't shoot again not unless you are sure of what you are aiming at!" Moisture from the night's rain hung on the tree leaves, clung in globules to Rynch's sweating body. He lay on a wide branch trying to control the heavy panting which supplied his laboring lungs.
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