be seen an eighth of an inch
beyond one's nose. And the Annos descended on Nalasu's clearing, a dozen
of them, armed with Sniders, horse pistols, tomahawks and war clubs,
walking gingerly, despite their thick sandals, because of fear of the
thorns which Nalasu no longer planted.

Jerry, sitting between Nalasu's knees and nodding sleepily, gave the
first warning to Nalasu, who sat outside his door, wide-eyed, ear-strung,
as he had sat through all the nights of the many years. He listened
still more tensely through long minutes in which he heard nothing, at the
same time whispering to Jerry for information and commanding him to be
soft-spoken; and Jerry, with whuffs and whiffs and all the short-hand
breath-exhalations of speech he had been taught, told him that men
approached, many men, more men than five.

Nalasu reached the bow beside him, strung an arrow, and waited. At last
his own ears caught the slightest of rustlings, now here, now there,
advancing upon him in the circle of the compass. Still speaking for
softness, he demanded verification from Jerry, whose neck hair rose
bristling under Nalasu's sensitive fingers, and who, by this time, was
reading the night air with his nose as well as his ears. And Jerry, as
softly as Nalasu, informed him again that it was men, many men, more men
than five.

With the patience of age Nalasu sat on without movement, until, close at
hand, on the very edge of the jungle, sixty feet away, he located a
particular noise of a particular man. He stretched his bow, loosed the
arrow, and was rewarded by a gasp and a groan strangely commingled. First
he restrained Jerry from retrieving the arrow, which he knew had gone
home; and next he fitted a fresh arrow to the bow string.

Fifteen minutes of silence passed, the blind man as if carven of stone,
the dog, trembling with eagerness under the articulate touch of his
fingers, obeying the bidding to make no sound. For Jerry, as well as
Nalasu, knew that death rustled and lurked in the encircling dark. Again
came a softness of movement, nearer than before; but the sped arrow
missed. They heard its impact against a tree trunk beyond and a
confusion of small sounds caused by the target's hasty retreat. Next,
after a time of silence, Nalasu told Jerry silently to retrieve the
arrow. He had been well trained and long trained, for with no sound even
to Nalasu's ears keener than seeing men's ears, he followed the direction
of the arrow