on. But he knew well enough that most animals avoid man
because of a bewildering sudden development of instinct.

Grizzly bears, before the white man came, were so scornful of man
that they could be considered the dominant species in North America.
They'd been known to raid a camp of Indians to carry away a man for
food. Indian spears and arrows were simply ineffective against them.
When Stonewall Jackson was a lieutenant in the United States Army,
stationed in the West to protect the white settlers, he and a
detachment of mounted troopers were attacked without provocation by a
grizzly who was wholly contemptuous of them. The then Lieutenant
Jackson rode a horse which was blind in one eye, and he maneuvered to
get the bear on the horse's blind side so he could charge it. With his
cavalry sabre he split the grizzly's skull down to its chin. It was
the only time in history that a grizzly bear was ever killed by a man
with a sword. But no grizzly nowadays would attack a man unless
cornered. Even cubs with no possible experience of humankind are
terrified by the scent of men.

All that was true enough. In addition, preparations for the Park
included much activity by the Wild Life Control unit, which persuaded
bears to congregate in one area by putting out food for them, and took
various other measures for deer and other animals. It had seeded trout
streams with fingerlings and the lake itself with baby big-mouthed
bass. The huge trailer truck of Wild Life Control was familiar enough.
Lockley had seen it headed up to the lake the day before the landing.
Now he found himself wondering sardonically to what degree the Wild
Life Control men determined where mountain lions should hunt.

He'd slept in the open innumerable times without thinking of mountain
lions. With Jill to look after, though, he worried. But he was
horribly weary, and he knew somehow that in the back of his mind there
was something unpleasant that was trying to move into his conscious
thoughts. It was a sort of hunch. Wearily and half asleep, he tried to
put his mind on it. He failed.

He awoke suddenly. There were rustlings among the trees. Something
moved slowly and intermittently toward him. It could be anything, even
a creature from Boulder Lake. He heard other sounds. Another creature.
The first drew near, not moving in a straight line. The second
creature followed it, drawing closer to the first.

Lockley's scalp crawled. Creatures from space might h