discovered Thorvald standing on the upper bluff, looking out toward
the waiting mountains. The officer turned as Shann urged the wolverines
to the raft, and when he jumped down the drop to join them, Shann saw he
carried a map strip unrolled in his hand.

"The situation is not as good as we hoped," he told the younger man.
"Well have to leave the river to cross the heights."

"Why?"

"There're rapids--bending in a falls." The officer squatted down,
spreading out the strip and making stabs at it with a nervous finger
tip. "Here we have to leave. This is all rough ground. But lying to the
south there's a gap which may be a pass. This was made from an aerial
survey."

Shann knew enough to realize to what extent such a guide could go wrong.
Main features of the landscape would be clear enough from aloft, but
there might be unsurmountable difficulties at ground level which were
not distinguishable from the air. Yet Thorvald had planned this journey
as if he had already explored their escape route and that it was as open
and easy as a stroll down Tyr's main transport way. Why was it so
necessary that they try to reach the sea? However, since he had no
objection to voice except a dislike for indefinite information, Shann
did not question the other's calm assumption of command, not yet,
anyway.

As they embarked and worked back into the current, Shann studied his
companion. Thorvald had freely listed the difficulties lying before
them. Yet he did not seem in the least worried about their being able to
win through to the sea--or if he was, his outer shell of unconcern
remained uncracked. Before their first day together had ended, the
younger Terran had learned that to Thorvald he was only another tool, to
be used by the Survey officer in some project which the other believed
of primary importance. And his resentment of the valuation was under
control so far. He valued Thorvald's knowledge, but the other's attitude
chilled and rebuffed his need for something more than a half partnership
of work.

Why had Thorvald come back to Warlock in the first place? And why had it
been necessary for him to risk his life--perhaps more than his life if
their theory was correct concerning the Throgs' wish to capture a
Terran--to get that set of maps from the plundered camp? When he had
first talked of that raid, his promised loot had been supplies to fill
their daily needs; there had been no mention of maps. By all signs
Thorvald was eng