hat night in a little vale. The floor of it was white with
the bones of woods goats that had tarried too long the fall before and
got caught by an early blizzard. There was still flesh on the bones and
scavenger rodents scuttled among the carcasses, feasting.

"We'll split up now," he told the others the next morning.

He assigned each of them his position; Steve Schroeder to parallel his
course thirty miles to his right, Gene Taylor to go thirty miles to his
left, and Tony Chiara to go thirty miles to the left of Taylor.

"We'll try to hold those distances," he said. "We can't look over the
country in detail that way but it will give us a good general survey of
it. We don't have too much time left by now and we'll make as many miles
into the north as we can each day. The woods goats will tell us when
it's time for us to turn back."

They parted company with casual farewells but for Steve Schroeder, who
smiled sardonically at the bones of the woods goats in the vale and
asked:

"Who's supposed to tell the woods goats?"

* * * * *

Tip, the black, white-nosed mocker on Lake's shoulder, kept twisting his
neck to watch the departure of the others until he had crossed the next
hill and the others were hidden from view.

"All right, Tip," he said then. "You can unwind your neck now."

"Unwind--all right--all right," Tip said. Then, with a sudden burst of
energy which was characteristic of mockers, he began to jiggle up and
down and chant in time with his movements, "All right all right all
right all right----"

"Shut up!" he commanded. "If you want to talk nonsense I don't care--but
don't say 'all right' any more."

"All right," Tip agreed amiably, settling down. "Shut up if you want to
talk nonsense. I don't care."

"And don't slaughter the punctuation like that. You change the meaning
entirely."

"But don't say all right any more," Tip went on, ignoring him. "You
change the meaning entirely."

Then, with another surge of animation, Tip began to fish in his jacket
pocket with little hand-like paws. "Tip hungry--Tip hungry."

Lake unbuttoned the pocket and gave Tip a herb leaf. "I notice there's
no nonsensical chatter when you want to ask for something to eat."

Tip took the herb leaf but he spoke again before he began to eat;
slowly, as though trying seriously to express a thought:

"Tip hungry--no nonsensical."

"Sometimes," he said, turning his head to look at Tip, "you