he wiped his lips with the back of his hand--"also we saw
your towers, Fox. And that is a place of power!"

"No sign that the Reds are prowling there?"

Nolan shook his head. "To my mind the mists there conceal the towers
from aerial view. Only one coming on foot could tell them from the
natural crags of the hills."

Travis relaxed. Time still granted them a margin of grace. He glanced up
to see Nolan smiling faintly.

"This maiden, she is a kin to the puma of the mountains," he announced.
"She has marked Tsoay with her claws until he looks like the ear-clipped
yearling fresh from the branding chute----"

"She is not hurt?" Travis demanded.

This time Nolan chuckled openly. "Hurt? No, we had much to do to keep
her from hurting us, younger brother. That one is truly as she claims, a
daughter of wolves. And she is also keen-witted, marking a return trail
all the way, though she does not know that is as we wish. Did we not
pick the easiest way back for just that reason? Yes, she plans to
escape."

Travis stood up. "Let us finish this quickly!" His voice came out on a
rough note. This plan had never had his full approval. Now he found it
less and less easy to think about taking Kaydessa into the ship,
allowing the emotional torment lurking there to work upon her. Yet he
knew that the girl would not be hurt, and he had made sure he would be
beside her within the globe, sharing with her the horror of the unseen.

A rattling of gravel down the narrow valley opening gave warning to
those by the campfire. Manulito had already stowed the space suit in
hiding. To Kaydessa they must have seemed reverted entirely to savagery.

Tsoay came first, an angry raking of four parallel scratches down his
left cheek. And behind him Buck and Eskelta shoved the prisoner, urging
her on with a show of roughness which did not descend to actual
brutality. Her long braids had shaken loose, and a sleeve was torn,
leaving one slender arm bare. But none of the fighting spirit had left
her.

They thrust her out into the circle of waiting men and she planted her
feet firmly apart, glaring at them all indiscriminately until she
sighted Travis. Then her anger became hotter and more deadly.

"Pig! Rooter in the dirt! Diseased camel--" she shouted at him in
English and then reverted to her own tongue, her voice riding up and
down the scale. Her hands were tied behind her back, but there were no
bonds on her tongue.

"This is one who can speak