or
his gun. Kurt Borch, twenty feet away, had a pistol drawn and pointed at
him.

His first shot went off as soon as the pistol was clear of the holster. He
fired the second while it was still recoiling; there was a spot of red on
Borch's shirt that gave him an aiming point for the third. Borch dropped
the pistol he hadn't been able to fire, and started folding at the knees
and then at the waist. He went down in a heap on his face.

Behind him, Gerd van Riebeek's voice was saying, "Hold it, all of you; get
your hands up. You, too, Kellogg."

Kellogg, who had fallen, pushed himself erect. Blood was gushing from his
nose, and he tried to stanch it on the sleeve of his jacket. As he
stumbled toward his companions, he blundered into Ruth Ortheris, who
pushed him angrily away from her. Then she went to the little crushed
body, dropping to her knees beside it and touching it. The silver charm
bell on the neck chain jingled faintly. Ruth began to cry.

Juan Jimenez had climbed down from the airboat; he was looking at the body
of Kurt Borch in horror.

"You killed him!" he accused. A moment later, he changed that to
"murdered." Then he started to run toward the living hut.

Gerd van Riebeek fired a bullet into the ground ahead of him, bringing him
up short.

"You'll stop the next one, Juan," he said. "Go help Dr. Kellogg; he got
himself hurt."

"Call the constabulary," Mallin was saying. "Ruth, you go; they won't
shoot at you."

"Don't bother. I called them. Remember?"

Jimenez had gotten a wad of handkerchief tissue out of his pocket and was
trying to stop his superior's nosebleed. Through it, Kellogg was trying to
tell Mallin that he hadn't been able to help it.

"The little beast attacked me; it cut me with that spear it was carrying."

Ruth Ortheris looked up. The other Fuzzies were with her by the body of
Goldilocks; they must have come as soon as they had heard the screaming.

"She came up to him and pulled at his trouser leg, the way they all do
when they want to attract your attention," she said. "She wanted him to
look at her new jingle." Her voice broke, and it was a moment before she
could recover it. "And he kicked her, and then stamped her to death."

"Ruth, keep your mouth shut!" Mallin ordered. "The thing attacked Leonard;
it might have given him a serious wound."

"It did!" Still holding the wad of tissue to his nose with one hand,
Kellogg pulled up his trouser leg with the other and showed a s