so much thought before this! But--"

"Yes. Judith."

And then they heard a woman's voice speaking behind them. "Thrayxite
acceleration hammocks could stand improvement," it said. "And when we
leave the Forest of Saarl, I think I'll just lie on the deck instead."

* * * * *

Kriijorl's knowledge of the spot's location in the great forest was
far more accurate than he had given Mason reason to hope. And with a
deftness that matched that with which he had eluded the screens of the
Thrayxite fleet hurtling to protect its breeder planetoid, he brought
the ship to rest at Mason's direction, little more than a quarter-mile
from where the Book of the Saints lay entombed.

It was marked by two spires. One was of hewn stone, as Kriijorl had
said, immobile, with ancient symbols carven from its base to its
pinnacle.

And the other was smooth, and of metal; its gaping airlock testimony
to the haste with which it had been landed, unhidden by the natural
camouflage of the soaring trees with which the grass-carpeted clearing
was surrounded.

"Who--"

"Muscles," Mason answered her. The three were crouched at the
clearing's edge, waiting. "Thought he'd made it some way. Must've
ducked in before their fleet got into Space. Gambling that our signal
that he picked up wouldn't bring out a special reception committee
ready and waiting to meet him."

"But he has preceded us by many minutes," Kriijorl said. "I do not
see--"

"Not so many. He was in flight two full hours before you mentacommed
Ihelos. And if I know him, it was straight out of this galaxy at full
blast! So he had to back-track all that time and distance. He had to
risk a trap down here, as well as the Thrayxite fleet which he knew
would be rushing to protect its breeders."

"You had counted on those factors, Lieutenant?"

"Two birds with one blast, like I told you before," Mason said. "Ask
Judith, here. She'll tell you how well I know him." The girl was
silent, but her eyes voiced her thoughts more eloquently than her
tongue might have.

"Some will do anything to obtain the 'priceless'--" Kriijorl said
softly.

"Cain, any time!"

"You have laid a clever trap, Lieutenant."

"If it springs, sure. But where are those guard ships you were so
worried about? I was counting on them, too. They should be all over
the place by now."

And he was interrupted by the high-pitched scream of the flat, finned
shapes that hurtled suddenly ove