la's name tolerably well. "And you, I think, are
Mr. Kieran."

Kieran said, "Yes." The star-cluster blazed overhead. The dead beasts
lay behind him, the people with their flying hair had run on beyond his
sight. He had been dead for a hundred years and now he was alive again.
Now he was standing on alien soil, facing an alien form of life,
communicating with it, and he was so dog-tired and every sensory nerve
was so thoroughly flayed that he had nothing left to react with. He
simply looked at the Saka as he might have looked at a fence-post, and
said, "Yes."

The Saka made his formal little bow again. "I am Bregg." He shook his
head. "I'm glad I was able to reach you in time. You people don't seem
to have any notion of the amount of trouble you make for us--"

Paula, who had not spoken since the child was carried off, suddenly
screamed at Bregg, "Murderer!"

She sprang at him, striking him in blind hysteria.

8.

Bregg sighed. He caught Paula in those fine small hands that seemed to
have amazing strength and held her, at arm's length. "Doctor Ray," he
said. He shook her. "Doctor Ray." She stopped screaming. "I don't wish
to administer a sedative because then you will say that I drugged you.
But I will if I must."

Kieran said, "I'll keep her quiet."

He took her from Bregg. She collapsed against him and began to cry.
"Murderers," she whispered. "That little girl, those old people--"

Webber said, "You could exterminate those beasts. You don't have to let
them hunt the people like that. It's--it's--"

"Unhuman is the word you want," said Bregg. His voice was exceedingly
weary. "Please get into the car."

They climbed in. The car churned around and sped back toward the
building. Paula shivered, and Kieran held her in his arms. Webber said
after a moment or two, "How did you happen to be here, Bregg?"

"When we caught the flitter and found it empty, it was obvious that you
were with the people, and it became imperative to find you before you
came to harm. I remembered that the trail ran close by this old outpost
building, so I had the patrol ship drop us here with an emergency
vehicle."

Kieran said, "You knew the people were coming this way?"

"Of course." Bregg sounded surprised. "They migrate every year at the
beginning of the dry season. How do you suppose Webber found them so
easily?"

Kieran looked at Webber. He asked, "Then they weren't running from the
Sakae?"

"Of course they were," Paula s