..."

And, he added silently, I intend to keep on that way. The Throg attack
had dissolved the pattern of the Survey team. He didn't owe Thorvald any
allegiance. And he had been successfully on his own here since the camp
had been overrun.

"South," Thorvald repeated. "Well, that's as good a direction as any
right now."

But they were not united. Shann found the wolverines and patiently
coaxed and wheedled them into coming with him over a circuitous route
which kept them away from both ships. Thorvald went up the cliff, swung
down again, a supply bag slung over one shoulder. He stood watching as
Shann brought the animals in.

Then Thorvald's arm swept out, his fingers closing possessively about
the barrel of the blaster. Shann's own hold on the weapon tightened, and
the force of the other's pull dragged him partly around.

"Let's have that----"

"Why?" Shann supposed that because it had been the other's well-aimed
rock which had put the Throg out of commission permanently, the officer
was going to claim their only spoils of war as personal booty, and a hot
resentment flowered in the younger man.

"We don't take that away from here." Thorvald made the weapon his with a
quick twist.

To Shann's utter astonishment, the Survey officer walked back to kneel
beside the dead Throg. He worked the grip of the blaster under the
alien's lax claws and inspected the result with the care of one
arranging a special and highly important display. Shann's protest became
vocal. "We'll need that!"

"It'll do us far more good right where it is...." Thorvald paused and
then added, with impatience roughening his voice as if he disliked the
need for making any explanations, "There is no reason for us to
advertise our being alive. If the Throgs found a blaster missing, they'd
start thinking and looking around. I want to have a breathing spell
before I have to play quarry in one of their hunts."

Put that way, his action did make sense. But Shann regretted the loss of
an arm so superior to their own weapons. Now they could not loot the
plateship either. In silence he turned and started to trudge southward,
without waiting for Thorvald to catch up with him.

Once away from the blasted area, the wolverines ranged ahead at their
clumsy gallop, which covered ground at a surprising rate of speed. Shann
knew that their curiosity made them scouts surpassing any human and that
the men who followed would have ample warning of any danger to c