, till it
was a definitely well used trail. It began to look to him like the thing
might have a den of some sort, and he might be getting pretty close to
it. He left the trail and climbed up into a lone tall tree,
fire-scorched but still struggling for life. From there, he could follow
the trail pretty well with his glasses for a couple of hundred yards
before he lost it. Finally, he settled on a spot under an old burnt
stump as a likely spot for the den.

He focused the glasses carefully and after a few minutes saw a flash of
movement there, as if something had slipped in or out. Nothing else
happened for about an hour. Then the grass along one of the trails began
to wave and a large beast, similar to the one he had shot, trotted into
sight. It slipped in under the stump and disappeared.

For the rest of the morning, nothing went in or out.

There was a very good reason for this, and Ed was it.

* * * * *

All night and day after he shot the stinging unit and the carrier unit,
the Harn had stayed in its nest. By the second evening, it was getting
hungry. It ventured out and found a few morsels, but the organized
hunting network it ordinarily maintained had been disrupted, it had lost
track of things, and the pickings were poor. Then it stumbled on the
rabbit Ed had staked out.

Its first impulse was to leave the rabbit strictly alone. In spite of
its early promise, the other world had so far given nothing but trouble.
On the other hand, the rabbit was meat, and very good meat, by the smell
and looks of it....

The Harn kept its observation unit prowling irresolutely around the
target for half the night before it finally gave in to appetite and sent
in a stinger to finish the rabbit off, a carrier to pick it up.

It was still uneasy about this when it noticed Ed near the nest the next
morning, confirming its fears. It promptly broke up the net it had been
re-establishing and pulled all units back in. Maybe if it left him
strictly alone, he might still go on about his business, whatever that
was, and let the Harn get back to its harvesting.

* * * * *

By noon, Ed was getting pretty stiff sitting in the tree. He climbed
down and eased over toward the stump, watching where he set his feet. He
was pretty sure the snakeproof pants would stop the stingers, but he saw
no point in putting them to the test until he had to.

About fifty yards away, he got