to be
so easily enticed. For though the hunters waited for a long time, there
was no answer to that hail. At last the helmeted man called his
captives, bringing them sullenly down to mount and ride again--a move
which suited the Apaches.

They could not tell how close was the communication between the rider
and the helicopter. And they were still too near the plains to attack
unless it was necessary for their own protection. Travis dropped back to
join Nolan.

"He controls them by that plate on his chest," he said. "If we would
take them, we must get at that--"

"These Tatars use lariats in fighting. Did they not rope you as a calf
is roped for branding? Then why do they not so take this Red, binding
his arms to his sides?" The suspicion in Nolan's voice was plain.

"Perhaps in them is some conditioned control making it so that they
cannot attack their rulers--"

"I do not like this matter of machines which can play this way and that
with minds and bodies!" flared Nolan. "A man should only _use_ a weapon,
not be one!"

Travis could agree to that. Had they by the wreck of their own ship and
the death of Ruthven, escaped just such an existence as these Tatars now
endured? If so, why? He and all the Apaches were volunteers, eager and
willing to form new world colonies. What had happened back on Terra that
they had been so ruthlessly sent out without warning and under Redax?
Another small piece of that puzzle, or maybe the heart of the whole
picture snapped into place. Had the project learned in some way of the
Tatar settlement on Topaz and so been forced to speed up that
translation from late twentieth-century Americans to primitives? That
would explain a lot!

Travis returned abruptly to the matter now at hand as he saw a peak
ahead. The party they were trailing was heading directly for the outlaw
hide-out. Travis hoped Menlik had warned them in time. There--that wall
of cliff to his left must shelter the valley of the towers, though it
was still miles ahead. Travis did not believe the hunters would be able
to reach their goal unless they traveled at night. They might not know
of the ape-things which could menace the dark.

But the enemy, whether he knew of such dangers or not, did not intend to
press on. As the sun pulled away, leaving crevices and crannies shadow
dark, the hunters stopped to make camp. The Apaches, after their custom
on the war trail, gathered on the heights above.

"This Red seems to think