raders' arrival
spread quickly during the short time they had been here, so that two
other clans had sent men to watch the proceedings.

With the trade came news which the agents sifted and studied. Each of
them had a list of questions to insert into their conversations with the
tribesmen if and when that was possible. Although they did not share a
common speech with the forest men, signs were informative and certain
nouns could be quickly learned. In the meantime Ashe became friendly
with the nearest and first of the clan groups they discovered, going
hunting with the men as an excuse to penetrate the unknown section they
must quarter in their search for the Red base.

Ross drank river water and mopped his own hot face. "If the Reds aren't
traders," he mused aloud, "what _is_ their cover?"

McNeil shrugged. "A hunting tribe--fishermen--"

"Where would they get the women and children?"

"The same way they get their men--recruit them in our own time. Or in
the way lots of tribes grew during periods of stress."

Ross set down the water jug. "You mean, kill off the men, take over
their families?" This was a cold-bloodedness he found sickening.
Although he had always prided himself on his toughness, several times
during his training at the project he had been confronted by things
which shook his belief in his own strong stomach and nerve.

"It has been done," McNeil remarked bleakly, "hundreds of times by
invaders. In this setup--small family clans, widely scattered--that move
would be very easy."

"They would have to pose as farmers, not hunters," Ross pointed out.
"They couldn't move a base around with them."

"All right, so they set up a farming village. Oh, I see what you
mean--there isn't any village around here. Yet they are here, maybe
underground."

How right their guesses were they learned that night when Ashe returned,
a deer's haunch on his shoulder. Ross knew him well enough by now to
sense his preoccupation. "You found something?"

"A new set of ghosts," Ashe replied with a strange little smile.

"Ghosts!" McNeil pounced upon that. "The Reds like to play the
supernatural angle, don't they? First the voice of Lurgha and now
ghosts. What do these ghosts do?"

"They inhabit a bit of mountainous territory southeast of here, a
stretch strictly taboo for all hunters. We were following a bison track
until the beast headed for the ghost country. Then Ulffa called us off
in a hurry. It seems that the hun