ie they had made in turn on the occupied camp, the
dust storm on the river, the escape from the Throg ship in the mountain
crevice, and their meeting with the hound. Then that storm which had
driven them to seek cover after their curious experience with the disk.
And now this day when they had safely reached the island.

"Why this island?" he asked suddenly.

"That carved piece was found here on the edge of this valley," Thorvald
returned matter-of-factly.

"But today we found nothing at all----"

"Yet this island supplies us with a starting point."

A starting point for what? A detailed search of all the islands, great
and small, in the chain? And how did they dare continue to paddle openly
from one to the next with the Throgs sweeping the skies? They would have
provided an excellent target today as they combed that reef for an hour
or more. Wearily, Shann spread out his hands in the very faint light of
their tiny fire, poked with a finger tip at smarting points which would
have been blisters had those hands not known a toughening process in the
past. More paddling tomorrow? But that was tomorrow, and at least they
need not worry tonight about any Throg attack once they had doused the
fire, an action which was now being methodically attended to by
Thorvald. Shann pushed down on the bed of leaves he had heaped together.
The night was quiet. He could hear only the murmur of the sea, a lulling
croon of sound to make one sleep deep, perhaps dreamlessly.

Sun struck down, making a dazzle about him. Shann turned over drowsily
in that welcome heat, stretching a little as might a cat at ease. Then
he really awoke under the press of memory, and the need for alertness
rode him once more. Beaten-down grass, the burnt-out embers of last
night's fire were beside him. But of Thorvald and the wolverines there
were no signs.

Not only did he now lie alone, but he was possessed by the feeling that
he had not been deserted only momentarily, that Taggi, Togi and the
Survey officer were indeed gone. Shann sat up, got to his feet,
breathing faster, a prickle of uneasiness spreading in him, bringing him
to that inner slope, up it to the crest from which he could see that
beach where last night they had concealed the canoe.

Those lengths of brush and tufts of grass they had used for a screen
were strewn about as if tossed in haste. And not too long before....

For the canoe was out in the calm waters within the reef, the paddle
bl