var Dard looked around; Dorita had chosen the
spot well. Not even a sure-footed mountain-goat could make the ascent,
once that gorge was blocked.

"All right; put me down here," he directed. "Bo-Bo, take my belt, and
give me the big bomb. You have one light grenade; know how to use it?"

"Of course, you have often showed me. I turn the top, and then press in
the little thing on the side, and hold it in till I throw. I throw it at
least a spear-cast, and drop to the ground or behind something."

"That's right. And use it only in greatest danger, to save everybody.
Spare your cartridges; use them only to save life. And save everything
of metal, no matter how small."

"Yes. Those are the rules. I will follow them, and so will the others.
And we will always take care of Varnis."

"Well, goodbye, son." He gripped the boy's hand. "Now get everybody out
of here; don't stop till you're at the pass."

"You're not staying behind!" Varnis cried. "Dard, you promised us! I
remember, when we were all in the ship together--you and I and Analea
and Olva and Dorita and Eldra and, oh, what was that other girl's name,
Kyna! And we were all having such a nice time, and you were telling us
how we'd all come to Tareesh, and we were having such fun talking about
it...."

"That's right, Varnis," he agreed. "And so I will. I have something to
do, here, but I'll meet you on top of the mountain, after I'm through,
and in the morning we'll all go to Tareesh."

She smiled--the gentle, childlike smile of the harmlessly mad--and
turned away. The son of Kalvar Dard made sure that she and all the
children were on the way, and then he, too, turned and followed them,
leaving Dard alone.

Alone, with a bomb and a task. He'd borne that task for twenty years,
now; in a few minutes, it would be ended, with an instant's searing
heat. He tried not to be too glad; there were so many things he might
have done, if he had tried harder. Metals, for instance. Somewhere there
surely must be ores which they could have smelted, but he had never
found them. And he might have tried catching some of the little horses
they hunted for food, to break and train to bear burdens. And the
alphabet--why hadn't he taught it to Bo-Bo and the daughter of Seldar
Glav, and laid on them an obligation to teach the others? And the
grass-seeds they used for making flour sometimes; they should have
planted fields of the better kinds, and patches of edible roots, and
returned at