eating faster at a small scrape
of gravel, the rustle of a bush. Slowly, they began to relax.

"It is well that two sleep while one guards," Travis observed. "By
morning we must push on, out of this country."

So the two Apaches shared the watch in turn, the Tatar girl at first
protesting, and then falling exhausted into a slumber which left her
breathing heavily.

Travis, on the dawn watch, began to speculate about the ape-thing they
had killed. The two previous times he had met this creature it had been
in ruins of the old empire. Were there ruins somewhere here? He wanted
to make sure about that. On the other hand, there was the problem of the
Tatar-Mongol settlement controlled by the Reds. There was no doubt in
his mind that, were the Reds to suspect the existence of the Apache
camp, they would make every attempt to hunt down and kill or capture the
survivors from the American ship. A warning must be carried to the
rancheria as quickly as they could make the return trip.

Beside him the girl stirred, raising her head. Travis glanced at her and
then watched with attention. She was looking straight ahead, her eyes as
fixed as if she were in a trance. Now she inched forward from the
mountain wall, wriggling out of its shelter.

"What--?" Tsoay had awakened again. But Travis was already moving. He
pushed on, rushing up to stand beside her, shoulder to shoulder.

"What is it? Where do you go?" he asked.

She made no answer, did not even seem aware of his voice. He caught at
her arm and she pulled to free herself. When he tightened his grip she
did not fight him actively as during their first encounter, but merely
pulled and twisted as if she were being compelled to go ahead.

Compulsion! He remembered her plea the night before, asking his help
against recapture by the machine. Now he deliberately tripped her,
twisted her hands behind her back. She swayed in his hold, trying to win
to her feet, paying no attention to him save as a hindrance against her
answering that demanding call he could not hear.

7

"What happened?" Tsoay took a swift stride, stood over the writhing girl
whose strength was now such that Travis had to exert all his efforts to
control her.

"I think that the machine she spoke about is holding her. She is being
drawn to it out of hiding as one draws a calf on a rope."

Both coyotes had arisen and were watching the struggle with interest,
but there was no warning from them. Whatever