the ones
the Reds play by are twice as tough on their own men."

"What kind of trouble?" Ashe wanted to know.

"Some kind of a local religious dispute. We do our best with their code,
but we're not a hundred per cent perfect in reading it. I gather they
were playing with a local god and got their fingers burned."

"Lurgha again, eh?" Ashe smiled.

"Foolish," Webb said impatiently. "That is a silly thing to do. You were
almost over the edge of prudence yourself, Gordon, with that Lurgha
business. To use the Great Mother was a ticklish thing to try, and you
were lucky to get out of it so easily."

"Once was enough," Ashe agreed. "Though using it may have saved our
lives. But I assure you I am not starting a holy war or setting up as a
prophet."

Ross had been taught something of map reading, but mentally he could not
make what he saw on paper resemble the countryside. A few landmarks, if
there were any outstanding ones, were all he could hope to impress upon
his memory until he was actually on the ground.

Landing there according to Millaird's instruction was another experience
he would not have chosen of his own accord. To jump was a matter of
timing, and in the dark with a measure of rain thrown in, the action was
anything but pleasant. Leaving the plane in a blind, follow-the-leader
fashion, Ross found the descent into darkness one of the worst trials he
had yet faced. But he did not make too bad a landing in the small
parklike expanse they had chosen for their target.

Ross pulled loose his harness and chute, dragging them to what he judged
to be the center of the clearing. Hearing a plaintive bray from the air,
he dodged as one of the two burden asses sent to join them landed and
began to kick at its trappings. The animals they had chosen were the
most docile available and they had been given sedation before the jump
so that now, feeling Ross's hands, the donkey stood quietly while Ross
stripped it of its hanging straps.

"Rossa--" The sound of his Beaker name called through the dark brought
Ross facing in the other direction.

"Here, and I have one of the donkeys."

"And I the other!" That was McNeil.

Their eyes adjusted to a gloom which was not as thick as it would be in
the forest and they worked fast. Then they dragged the parachutes
together in a heap. The rain would, Webb had assured them, add to the
rapid destruction wrought by the chemical he had provided. Ashe shook it
over the pile, and ther