bed.

Perhaps a mile downstream was the transport the Terrans had cobbled
together no earlier than this afternoon, a raft Thorvald had professed
to believe would support them to the sea which lay some fifty Terran
miles to the west. But now he had to cover that mile.

The wolverines? Thorvald? There was one lure which might draw the
animals on to the rendezvous. Taggi had brought down a "deer" just
before they had left the raft. And instead of allowing both beasts to
feast at leisure, Shann had lashed the carcass to the shaky platform of
wood and brush, putting it out to swing in the current, though still
moored to the bank.

Wolverines always cached that part of the kill which they did not
consume at the first eating, usually burying it. He had hoped that to
leave the carcass in such a way would draw both animals back to the raft
when they were hungry. And they had not fed particularly well that day.

Thorvald? Well, the Survey officer had made it very plain during the
past five days of what Shann had come to look upon as an uneasy
partnership that he considered himself far abler to manage in the field,
while he had grave doubts of Shann's efficiency in the direction of
survival potential.

The Terran started along the pattern of retreat he had laid out to the
river bed. His heart pounded as he ran, not because of the physical
effort he was expending, but because again from the camp had come that
blood-freezing howl. A lighter line marked the lip of the cut in which
the stream was set, something he had not foreseen. He threw himself down
to crawl the last few feet, hugging the earth.

That very pale luminescence was easily accounted for by what lay below.
Shann licked his lips and tasted the sting of sap smeared on his face
during his struggle with the bushes. While the strip of meadow behind
him now had been spotted with light plants, the cut below showed an
almost solid line of them stringing willow-wise along the water's edge.
To go down at this point was simply to spotlight his presence for any
Throg on his trail. He could only continue along the upper bank, hoping
to finally find an end to the growth of luminescent vegetation below.

Shann was perhaps five yards from the point where he had come to the
river, when a commotion behind made him freeze and turn his head
cautiously. The camp was half hidden, and the fires there must be dying.
But a twisting, struggling mass was rolling across the meadow in his
g