distance
he heard the eerie keen of a train whistle, and visualized the scene as
it was flagged down and searched from engine to caboose._

_Directly before him loomed the forbidding northern boundary of the
Okefenokee Swamp. Unconsciously he strained his ears, then shuddered at
the night noises that issued from the noisome wilderness. A frenzied
threshing, then a splash, then ... silence. What drama of life and death
was being played out in that strange other-world of perpetual shadows?_

_In sudden panic he jerked erect and cupped his palm round his ear. Far
off; muted by distance, but still unmistakable; he heard the baying of
bloodhounds. Then this was the end. A sob broke from his throat. What
was he, an animal; to be hunted down as a sport? Tears of self-pity
welled to his eyes as he thought back to a party and a girl and laughter
and cleanliness and the scent of magnolias, like a heady wine. But that
was so long ago--so long ago--and now.... He looked down at his
sweating, lacerated body; his blistered calloused palms; the black
broken nails; the cheap workshoes with hemp laces; the shapeless gray
cotton trousers, now wet to the knees._

_He pulled back his shoulders and resolutely faced west toward the
river, but stopped short in horror as he heard the sudden cacophony of
barks, yelps and howls of a pack of bloodhounds that senses the
beginning of the end. He turned in panic. They couldn't be over half a
mile away. In a panic of indecision he turned first east then west, then
facing due south he hesitated a moment to take one last look at the
clear open skies, and with a muffled prayer plunged into the brooding
depths of the Okefenokee._

* * * * *

JUNE 13, 427th Year GALACTIC ERA

The building still hummed and vibrated with the dying echoes of the
alarm siren as the biophysicist hurried down the corridor, and without
breaking stride, pushed open the door to the Director's office.

The Director shuffled the papers before him and sighed heavily. His
chair creaked protestingly as he shifted his bulk and looked up.

"Well?"

"He got away clean," said the biophysicist.

"Any fix on the direction?"

"None at all, sir. And he's got at least a two hours' start. That takes
in a pretty big area of space."

"Hm-m-m! Well there's just a bare chance. That experimental cruiser is
the fastest thing in space and it's equipped with the latest
ethero-radar. If we get started right a