area, and you're with us,
so _you_ will be in very big trouble." He looked coldly at Kieran. "The
first reason is the one that interests me most."

Kieran shrugged. "Well, now I know." He ran.

Only then did he hear the low heavy thrumming in the sky.

6.

The sound came rumbling very swiftly toward them. It was a completely
different sound from the humming of the flitter, and it seemed to Kieran
to hold a note of menace. He stopped in a small clearing where he might
see up through the trees. He wanted a look at this ship or flier or
whatever it was that had been built and was flown by non-humans.

But Webber shoved him roughly on into a clump of squat trees that were
the color of sherry wine, with flat thick leaves.

"Don't move," he said.

Paula was hugging a tree beside him. She nodded to him to do as Webber
said.

"They have very powerful scanners." She pointed with her chin. "Look.
They've learned."

The harsh warning barks of the men sounded faintly, then were hushed.
Nothing moved, except by the natural motion of the wind. The people
crouched among the trees, so still that Kieran would not have seen them
if he had not known they were there.

The patrol craft roared past, cranking up speed as it went. Webber
grinned. "They'll be a couple of hours at least, overhauling and
examining the flitter. By that time it'll be dark, and by morning we'll
be in the mountains."

The people were already moving. They headed upstream, going at a steady,
shuffling trot. Three of the women, Kieran noticed, had babies in their
arms. The older children ran beside their mothers. Two of the men and
several of the women were white-haired. They ran also.

"Do you like to see them run?" asked Paula, with a sharp note of passion
in her voice. "Does it look good to you?"

"No," said Kieran, frowning. He looked in the direction in which the
sound of the patrol craft was vanishing.

"Move along," Webber said. "They'll leave us far enough behind as it
is."

* * * * *

Kieran followed the naked people through the woods, beside the tawny
river. Paula and Webber jogged beside him. The shadows were long now,
reaching out across the water.

Paula kept glancing at him anxiously, as though to detect any sign of
weakness on his part. "You're doing fine," she said. "You should. Your
body was brought back to normal strength and tone, before you ever were
awakened."

"They'll slow down when it's d