ass out, but
things got pretty dim.

After a while he got hold of himself and sat up. He was not too
surprised to see the man in forest green prodding at the bodies of the
fighting units. The stranger looked at the smoke still oozing from the
den and nodded approvingly. Then he came over and looked at Ed. He
clacked his tongue in concern and bent over, touching Ed's wrist. Ed
noticed there was now a cast on it, and it didn't hurt so much. There
was also a plastic binding around his ribs and shoulder, where the claws
of the first fighter had raked as it tossed him. That was a mighty neat
trick, because the rags of his shirt were still buttoned around him, and
he was pretty sure it had not been off at any time.

The stranger smiled at Ed, patted him on the shoulder, and disappeared.
He seemed to be a busy sort of fellow, Ed thought, with not much time
for visiting.

Ed felt quite a bit better now, enough better to gather up what was left
of his gear and start home. He was glad to find old Tom waiting for him
there. The cat had taken to the woods when the attack on the gate first
started, he didn't like shooting, and Ed had worried that the Harn might
have got him.

* * * * *

Ed slept till noon the next day, got up and cooked a dozen flapjacks and
a pound of bacon. After breakfast, he sat around for an hour or so
drinking coffee. Then he spent the rest of the afternoon puttering
around the cabin.

He packed away the snakeproof pants, disassembled the flame-thrower,
picked up the traps by the hole.

Old Tom seemed to have pretty well cleaned up the mice under the
lean-to. Ed took his shovel and filled in the hole he had dug for the
cat to get at them.

He went to bed early. Tomorrow he would take a long hike around the new
world, scout out the fur and game, plan his trap-line and pick cabin
sites.

The next morning, though, the hole into the other world was gone.

The posts which had marked it were sheared neatly in half. The remains
of the door still hung there, battered and sagging; but it swung open on
nothing but Alaska, when Ed stepped through he found himself standing
beside the old leaning birch.

He tried it several times before he convinced himself.

He walked slowly back toward the cabin, feeling old and uncertain, not
quite knowing what to do with himself. Old Tom was over by the lean-to,
sniffing and pawing tentatively at the fresh earth where Ed had filled
in the