had invaded
the city? Where were they now?

"I'd like to know," he was speaking more to himself than to the
com-tech, "how they _did_ do it. No other bodies--"

"Those could have been taken away by their friends," Soriki
suggested. "But if they're still hanging about, I hope they won't
believe that we're bigger and better editions of the painted lads. I
don't want a spear through me!"

Raf, remembering the maze of lanes and streets--bordered by buildings
which could provide hundreds of lurking places for attackers--which he
had threaded with the confidence of ignorance earlier that day, began
to realize why the aliens had been so nervous. Had a sniper with a
blast rifle been stationed at a vantage point somewhere on the roofs
today none of them would ever have returned to this field. And even a
few spacemen with good cover and accurate throwing aim could have cut
down their number a quarter or a third. He was developing a strong
distaste for those structures. And he had no intention of returning to
the city again.

He lounged about with Soriki for the rest of the afternoon, watching
the ceaseless activity of the aliens. It was plain that they were
intent upon packing into the cargo hold of their ship everything they
could wrest from the storage house. As if they must make this trip
count double. Was that because they had discovered that their treasure
house was no longer inviolate?

In the late afternoon Hobart and Lablet came back with one of the work
teams. Lablet was still excited, full of what he had seen, deduced, or
guessed during the day. But the captain was very quiet and sober, and
he unstrapped the wrist camera as soon as he reached the flitter,
turning it over to Soriki.

"Run that through the ditto," he ordered. "I want two records as soon
as we can get them!"

The com-tech's eyebrows slid up, "Think you might lose one, sir?"

"I don't know. Anyway, we'll play it safe with double records." He
accepted the ration pack Raf had brought out for him. But he did not
unwrap it at once; instead he stared at the globe, digging the toe of
his space boot into the soil as if he were grinding something to
powder.

"They're operating under full jets," he commented. "As if they were
about due to be jumped--"

"They told us that this was territory now held by their enemies,"
Lablet reminded him.

"And who are these mysterious enemies?" the captain wanted to know.
"Those animals back on that island?"

Raf