f smoke starting to
come up next to that big patch of trees!... Two point nine miles due
north and uphill of the wrecks."

From a wall screen Dr. Egavine's voice repeated sharply, "Smoke? Then
Leed Farous was not the only survivor!"

Duomart gave him a cool glance. "Might be a native animal that knows how
to make fire. They're not so unusual." She went on to Dasinger. "It
would take a hand detector to spot us where we are, but it does look
like a distress signal. If it's men from one of the wrecks, why haven't
they used the scout's other lifeboat?"

"Would the lifeboat still be intact?" Dasinger asked.

Duomart spun the ground-view plate back to the scout. "Look for
yourself," she said. "It _couldn't_ have been damaged in as light a
crash as that one was. Those tubs are built to stand a really solid
shaking up! And what else could have harmed it?"

"Farous may have put it out of commission before he left," Dasinger
said. "He wanted to come back from the Hub with an expedition to get the
hyacinths, so he wouldn't have cared for the idea of anyone else getting
away from the planet meanwhile." He looked over at the screen. "How
about it, doctor? Did Farous make any mention of that?"

Dr. Egavine seemed to hesitate an instant. "As a matter of fact, he did.
Farous was approximately a third of the way to the Hub when he realized
he might have made a mistake in not rendering the second lifeboat
unusable. But by then it was too late to turn back, and of course he was
almost certain there were no other survivors."

"So that lifeboat should still be in good condition?"

"It was in good condition when Farous left here."

"Well, whoever's down there simply may not know how to handle it."

Duomart shook her blond head decidedly. "That's out, too!" she said.
"Our Fleet lifeboats all came off an old Grand Commerce liner which was
up for scrap eighty, ninety years ago. They're designed so any fool can
tell what to do, and the navigational settings are completely automatic.
Of course if it _is_ a native firemaker--with mighty keen eyesight--down
there, that could be different! A creature like that mightn't think of
going near the scout. Should I start easing the Cat in towards the
smoke, Dasinger?"

"Yes. We'll have to find out what the signal means before we try to
approach the wrecks. Doctor, are you satisfied now that Miss Mines's
outworld biotic check was correct?"

"The analysis appears to be fairly accurate," Dr. Ega