e tower windows,
but of that I am not sure. Who is it?"

"Someone from the old days--those who once ruled the stars," Travis
answered. But were they still here then, the remnant of a civilization
which had flourished ten thousand years ago? Were the Baldies, who
centuries ago had hunted down so ruthlessly the Russians who had dared
to loot their wrecked ships, still on Topaz?

He remembered the story of Ross Murdock's escape from those aliens in
the far past of Europe, and he shivered. Murdock was tough, steel tough,
yet his own description of that epic chase and the final meeting had
carried with it his terror. What could a handful of primitively armed
and almost primitively minded Terrans do now if they had to dispute
Topaz with the Baldies?

10

"Beyond this--" Menlik worked his way to the very lip of a drop, raising
a finger cautiously--"beyond this we do not go."

"But you say that the camp of your people lies well out in the plains--"
Jil-Lee was up on one knee, using the field glasses they had brought
from the stores of the wrecked ship. He passed them along to Travis.
There was nothing to be sighted but the rippling amber waves of the tall
grasses, save for an occasional break of a copse of trees near the
foothills.

They had reached this point in the early morning, threading through the
pass, making their way across the section known to the outlaws. From
here they could survey the debatable land where their temporary allies
insisted the Reds were in full control.

The result of the conference in the south had been this uneasy alliance.
From the start Travis realized that he could not hope to commit the clan
to any set plan, that even to get this scouting party to come against
the stubborn resistance of Deklay and his reactionaries was a major
achievement. There was now an opening wedge of six Apaches in the
north.

"Beyond this," Menlik repeated, "they keep watch and can control us with
the caller."

"What do you think?" Travis passed the glasses to Nolan.

If they were ever to develop a war chief, this lean man, tall for an
Apache and slow to speak, might fill that role. He adjusted the lenses
and began a detailed study-sweep of the open territory. Then he
stiffened; his mouth, below the masking of the glasses, was tight.

"What is it?" Jil-Lee asked.

"Riders--two ... four ... five.... Also something else--in the air."

Menlik jerked back and grabbed at Nolan's arm, dragging him down