e for the desert. I never heard what became of the others, and
that was six years ago. I wonder if I've changed much."

"What's your name?" Murray asked suddenly.

"Tuman. Nay Tuman."

"The others must have been caught. As for yourself, orders have been
sent all over the solar system to kill you on sight. They hung the
killing of that electrician on you."

"That's their way!" Nay Tuman absented gloomily. "A price on my head.
They thought I'd stow away on some rocket liner, I suppose."

"Weren't you afraid some desert rat would give you away?"

"No danger. They're just about all fugitives themselves. They hid me
till I grew this foliage. They showed me how to find food and water
where seemingly there was none. The desert isn't sterile. Why, I know
of three or four men within fifty miles of here! Sometimes they stop
at my spring for water. As for the harness frames at the fort, those
sojers might as well be blind, considering all they miss."

"You asked a while ago if you've changed much. You have. I remember
your picture. All of us studied it, because there's a 100,000 I. P.
dollar reward out. You were a slim lad then, not the fuzzy bear you
are now. How would you like to go in to Tarog with me? They seem to
have us licked now--but did you ever hear that the I. F. P. is most
dangerous when it's been thoroughly licked?"

"I don't know--I'm used to the solitude," Tuman demurred. "In the city
I'd be lost."

But Murray won him over. He had a persuasive way with him.

* * * * *

The next morning they started, guiding their course by the Sun. They
made no attempt to travel fast, but the going was easy. Although they
rested during the heat of the day, and buried themselves for the
nights in the sun-warmed sand, they made about fifteen miles a day.
They saw no other human being. These desert dwellers did not meet for
mere sociability.

They left the mountains on the second day, descending to the lower
level of a broad, sterile plain which was studded by the low, greenish
pulp-mounds, that resembled mossy rocks more than vegetation. After
two days more they came to a region where huge blocks of stone, of the
prevailing orange or brick color, lay scattered around on the plain.

"They look good to me," Tuman said. "If some patrol comes along now
we'll have plenty of cover, at least. This belt is a hundred miles
wide, maybe a little more. Good hunting there. Plenty of desert hogs,
as fa