one of them appeared to be what his
companions sought.

They trotted up and down along the river bank, and from what he had
already observed concerning the aliens, Raf thought that the leader,
at least, was showing exasperation and irritation. They expected to
find something--it was not there--but it had to be! And they were fast
reaching the point where they wanted to produce it themselves to
justify the time spent in hunting for it.

Ruthlessly they rayed to death any creature their dragnet drove into
the open, leaving feebly kicking bodies of the furry, long-legged
beasts Raf had first seen after the landing of the spacer. He could
not understand the reason for such wholesale extermination, since
certainly the rabbitlike rodents were harmless.

In the end they gave up their quest and circled back to come out near
the field where the flitter and the globe rested. When the Terran
flyer came into sight, Raf left the party and hurried toward it.
Soriki waved a welcoming hand.

"'Bout time one of you showed up. What are they doing--toting half the
city here to load into that thing?"

Raf looked along the other's pointing finger. A party of aliens towing
a loaded dolly were headed for the gaping hatch of the globe, while a
second party and an empty conveyance passed them on the way back to
the storehouse.

"They are emptying a warehouse, or trying to."

"Well, they act as if Old Time himself was heating their tails with a
rocket flare. What's the big hurry?"

"Somebody's been here." Swiftly Raf outlined what he had seen in the
city, and ended by describing the hunt in which he had taken an
unwilling part. "I'm hungry," he ended and went to burrow for a ration
pack.

"So," mused Soriki as Raf chewed the stuff which never had the flavor
of fresh provisions, "somebody's been trying to beat the painted lads
to it. The furry people?"

"It was a spear shaft they found broken with the dead lizard thing,"
Raf commented. "And some of those on the island were armed with
spears--"

"Must be good fighters if, armed with spears, they brought down a
reptile as big as you say. It was big, wasn't it?"

Raf stared at the city, a square of half-eaten concentrate in his
fingers. Yes, that was a puzzler. The dead monster would be more than
_he_ would care to tackle without a blaster. And yet it was dead, with
a smashed spear for evidence as to the manner of killing.

All those others dead in the arena, too. How large a party