rning back.

"Turn back today, Tony," he said. "Steve and I will go on for a few days
more."

There was no answer and he said quickly, "Turn back--turn back!
Acknowledge that, Tony."

"Turning back ..." the acknowledgment came. "... tried to save her...."

The message stopped and there was a silence that Chiara's mocker would
never break again. He walked on, with Tip sitting very small and quiet
on his shoulder. He had crossed another hill before Tip moved, to press
up close to him the way mockers did when they were lonely and to hold
tightly to him.

"What is it, Tip?" he asked.

"Goldie is dying," Tip said. And then again, like a soft, sad whisper,
"Goldie is dying...."

"She was your mate.... I'm sorry."

Tip made a little whimpering sound, and the man reached up to stroke his
silky side.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm sorry as hell, little fellow."

* * * * *

For two days Tip sat lonely and silent on his shoulder, no longer
interested in the new scenes nor any longer relieving the monotony with
his chatter. He refused to eat until the morning of the third day.

By then the exodus of woods goats and unicorns had dwindled to almost
nothing; the sky a leaden gray through which the sun could not be seen.
That evening he saw what he was sure would be the last band of woods
goats and shot one of them.

When he went to it he was almost afraid to believe what he saw.

The hair above its feet was red, discolored with the stain of
iron-bearing clay.

He examined it more closely and saw that the goat had apparently watered
at a spring where the mud was material washed down from an iron-bearing
vein or formation. It had done so fairly recently--there were still tiny
particles of clay adhering to the hair.

The wind stirred, cold and damp with its warning of an approaching
storm. He looked to the north, where the evening had turned the gray
clouds black, and called Schroeder:

"Steve--any luck?"

"None," Schroeder answered.

"I just killed a goat," he said. "It has iron stains on its legs it got
at some spring farther north. I'm going on to try to find it. You can
turn back in the morning."

"No," Schroeder objected. "I can angle over and catch up with you in a
couple of days."

"You'll turn back in the morning," he said. "I'm going to try to find
this iron. But if I get caught by a blizzard it will be up to you to
tell them at the caves that I found iron and to tel