!" Her dark eyes were wide with puzzled surprise and one small foot
was bare from the loss of a sandal. "Someone shot at us!"

He thought, _So Narf got his pictures, after all_.

"Rootenant!" Alonzo came running. "They are _that_ way--awr spread out
to be sure to kirr you."

Alonzo motioned with his nose, a movement that seemed to cover all the
high ground beyond them. At least, the enemy was not between them and
camp. Not yet.

A distant shout came, an order from Narf to his men:

"_All of you--down that ridge! Get between Hunter and camp!_"

"_It's him!_" Her fingers gripped his arm. "He wants them to kill you!"

They had fired from a distance too great for his own blaster. He could
not defy them from where he now stood.

"I'll have to try to get within range of them," he said. "I'll go
back--"

"_No!_" Her grip on his arm tightened. "Don't leave me, Dale--don't let
him find me here."

He looked down the length of the swale. At its lower end the ghost tree
forest began, dense and concealing--but all down the length of the swale
the snarevines lay in thick, viciously barbed entanglements, overlying a
bed of sharp rocks and boulders. She could never get to the safety of
the ghost trees in time.

Narf had his pictures, now. What would he do to her in the insanity of
his hatred and triumph when he reached her?

"All right, Lyla," he said. "I'll see that you get to the trees--"

* * * * *
* * * *

There was a crashing of explosions and debris leaped skyward behind them
and along both sides of the swale. The firing continued, scattered but
very effectively consistent, and he said as he drew his blaster, "I
guess they don't want us to go away."

He set the regulator of the blaster at lowest intensity so that the beam
would not clip dangerous flying fragments from the boulders. The green,
tough vines disintegrated reluctantly while the precious minutes sped
by; while the unhindered assassins would be hurrying to the point where
the entire swale would be visible to them and under their fire.

Alonzo was following along near the top of the swale's side, ignoring
the danger as he watched the progress of the enemy and reported it to
Hunter: "Now they are halfway, Rootenant, hurrying faster--"

They reached the lower end of the swale. The last of the vines
disintegrated and the ghost tree forest lay before them.

He touched her cheek in farewell. "Ge