nes of Thompson's prelim research concerning
extraction of--"

I replaced it under the blanket. I was ready to give odds that each of
the previous finders had done the same: the kid that had arrived in
shuttler II, and probably 231's skipper; and each from the same
motive--_He'll be back; after all, a diary is a personal thing._

I went back outside, shut the port, and made a complete circuit of the
camp. I looked into each of the three shuttlers. I found nothing that
could offer the least positive clue to the fate of the twelve men from
231.

I returned to shuttler IV, beamed Moya, and filled him in, forcing
myself to be cheery.

"How's everything upstairs?"

"Right now we're having a little zero-gee drill; keeps the boys alert."

"Good idea. Now here's my plan: I've got ten hours of daylight left, so
I'm heading out into the bush. Figure departure in five minutes. Weather
has obscured signs, but I don't think I can go wrong by following my
nose and taking the shortest route. I'm traveling light, just the bug
rig, the W&R, belt kit, and a minicomm. I'm going to set up this
transceiver to record and transmit on command-response. I suggest you
interrogate every hour on the hour from now on. Catchum?"

I broke off, made the necessary adjustments, strapped the minicomm on my
wrist, and exited the shuttler.

The antiseptic air that I drew into my lungs was beginning to seem
inadequate, I felt slippery all over, and there was a cottony taste in
my mouth.

* * * * *

I made it to the start of the bush in fifteen minutes. Don't be misled
into picturing jungle. There was a variety of vegetation, including
trees, but none of it was what you'd call heavy going. Beyond somewhere
was a stream, significant enough to be noted on the chart as "First
Water." And several miles from the camp was the start of a series of
rolling hills. Blue in the distance was a chain of mountains--"The
Guardians." The over-all impression was of peaceful, virgin wilderness.

The original survey team had made its camp in the relative frankness of
the plain, then, after preliminary tests, had moved to higher ground,
specifically, the lee side of one of the nearer hills.

They had cleared an area, using heat sweepers to destroy encroaching
vegetation, and R-F beams to disenchant the local insect population.

Insects there were: a regular cacophony of buzzings, chirpings and
monotonous mutterings. By the time I'd