e remembered the reason he had been heading into the
hills. Of all the men on the Survey team, Shann Lantee had been the
least important. The dirty, tedious clean-up jobs, the dull routines
which required no technical training but which had to be performed to
keep the camp functioning comfortably, those had been his portion. And
he had accepted that status willingly, just to have a chance to be
included among Survey personnel. Not that he had the slightest hope of
climbing up to even an S-E-Three rating in the service.

Part of those menial activities had been to clean the animal cages. And
there Shann Lantee had found something new, something so absorbing that
most of the tiring dull labor had ceased to exist except as tasks to
finish before he could return to the fascination of the animal runs.

Survey teams had early discovered the advantage of using mutated and
highly trained Terran animals as assistants in the exploration of
strange worlds. From the biological laboratories and breeding farms on
Terra came a trickle of specialized aides-de-camp to accompany man into
space. Some were fighters, silent, more deadly than weapons a man wore
at his belt or carried in his hands. Some were keener eyes, keener
noses, keener scouts than the human kind could produce. Bred for
intelligence, for size, for adaptability to alien conditions, the animal
explorers from Terra were prized.

Wolverines, the ancient "devils" of the northlands on Terra, were being
tried for the first time on Warlock. Their caution, a quality highly
developed in their breed, made them testers for new territory. Able to
tackle in battle an animal three times their size, they should be added
protection for the man they accompanied into the wilderness, and their
wide ranging, their ability to climb and swim, and above all, their
curiosity were assets.

Shann had begun contact by cleaning their cages; he ended captivated by
these miniature bears with long bushy tails. And to his unbounded
delight the attraction was mutual. Alone to Taggi and Togi he was a
person, an important person. Those teeth, which could tear flesh into
ragged strips, nipped gently at his fingers, closed without any pressure
on arm, even on nose and chin in what was the ultimate caress of their
kind. Since they were escape artists of no mean ability, twice he had
had to track and lead them back to camp from forays of their own
devising.

But the second time he had been caught by Fadak