Dalgard, his bow useless in the damp, drew his own sword-knife. But,
though his mind probed and he listened, he could sense or hear nothing
on their trail.

8

AIRLIFT

They were air-borne once more, but Raf was not pleased. In the seat
beside him, which Captain Hobart should be occupying, there now
squirmed an alien warrior who apparently was uncomfortable in the
chair-like depression so different from the low stools he was
accustomed to. Soriki was still in the second passenger place, but he,
too, shared that with another of the men from the city who rested
across bony knees a strange weapon rather like a Terran rifle.

No, the spacemen were not prisoners. According to the official
statement they were allies. But, Raf wondered, as against his will he
followed the globe in a northeastern course, how long would that
fiction last if they refused to fall in with any suggestions the
aliens might make? He did not doubt that there was on board the globe
some surprise which could shoot the flitter out of the air, if, for
example, he adjusted the controls before him and bore west toward the
mountains and the safety of the space ship. Either of the aliens he
now transported could bring him under control by using those weapons,
which might do anything from boiling a man in some unknown ray to
smothering him in gas. He had not seen the arms in action, and he did
not want to.

Yet Hobart and Lablet did not, as far as he could tell, share his
suspicions. Lablet was eager to see the mysterious storehouse, and the
captain was either moved by the same desire or else had long since
deduced the folly of trying to make a break for it Thus they were now
heading seaward with the captain and Lablet sharing quarters with the
leaders of the expedition on board the globe, and Raf and the
com-tech, with companions--or guards--bringing up the rear. The aliens
had even insisted on stripping the flitter of much of its Terran
equipment before they left the city, pointing out that the cleared
storage space would be filled with salvage when they made the return
voyage.

The globe had been trailing along the coastline, and now it angled out
to glide over a long finger of cape, rocky and waterworn, which
pointed at almost a right angle into the sea. This dwindled into a
reef of rock, like the nail on a finger. The sea ahead was no unbroken
expanse. Instead there was a series of islands, some merely tops of
reefs over which the waves b