ghtful. "No." He did not enlarge upon his negative.
Sitting down he pulled a cylinder container from a belt loop and shook
out four tablets, handing two to Rynch, mouthing the others.

"Vita-blocks--good for twenty-four hours sustenance."

The iron rations depended upon by all exploring services did not have
the satisfying taste of real food. However Rynch swallowed them
dutifully before he descended with Hume to river level. The Hunter
splashed water from the stream into a depression in the rock and
dropped a pinch of clarifying powder into it.

"With the dark," he announced, "we might be able to get through their
lines."

"You believe that?"

Hume laughed. "No--but one doesn't overlook the factor of sheer luck.
Also, I don't care to finish up at the place they may have chosen for
us." He tilted his chin to study the sky. "We'll take watches and rest
in turn. No use trying anything until it is dark--unless they start to
move in. You take the first one?"

As Rynch nodded, Hume edged back into a crevice as a shelled creature
withdrawing to natural protection, going to sleep as easily as if he
could control that state by will. Rynch, watching him curiously for a
second or two before climbing up to a position from which he judged he
could see all sides of their refuge, determined not to be surprised.

The watchers were crouched down, waiting with that patience which had
impressed him from his first sight of the camp sentries back in the
forest. There was no movement, no sound. They were simply there--on
guard. And Rynch did not believe that the darkness of night would
bring any relaxation of that vigilance.

He leaned back, feeling the grit of the rocky surface against his bare
back and shoulders. Under his hand was the most efficient and
formidable weapon known to the frontier worlds, from this post he
could keep the enemy under surveillance and think.

Hume had had him planted here, in the first place, provided with the
memory of Rynch Brodie--the reward for him was to be a billion
credits. Too much staff work had gone into his conditioning for just a
small stake.

So Rynch Brodie was on Jumala, and Hume had come with witnesses to
find him. Another part of his mind stood aloof now, applauding the
clearness of his reasoning. Rynch Brodie was to be discovered a
castaway on Jumala. Only, matters had not worked out according to
Hume's plan. In the first place he was certain he had not been
intended to know that