ick eagerly, thrusting her nose into its
flaccid interior.

Travis picked it up, finding it damp to the touch. It had an odd smell,
like that of sour milk. He ran a finger around inside, brought it out
wet; yet this was neither water bag nor canteen. And he was completely
mystified when he turned it inside out, for though the inner surface was
wet, the bag was empty. He offered it to the coyote, and she took it
promptly.

Holding it firmly to the earth with her forepaws, she licked the
surface, though Travis could see no deposit which might attract her. It
was clear that the bag had once held some sort of food.

"Here they rested," Tsoay said. "Not too far ahead now--"

But now they were in the kind of country where a man could hide in order
to check on his back trail. Travis studied the terrain and then made his
own plans. They would leave the plainly marked trace of the fugitive,
strike out upslope to the east and try to parallel the other's route. In
that maze of rock outcrops and wood copses there was tricky going.

Nalik'ideyu gave a last lick to the bag as Travis signaled her. She
regarded him, then turned her head to survey the country before them. At
last she trotted on, her buff coat melting into the vegetation. With
Naginlta she would scout the quarry and keep watch, leaving the men to
take the longer way around.

Travis pulled off his shirt, folding it into a packet and tucking it
beneath the folds of his sash-belt, just as his ancestors had always
done before a fight. Then he cached his pack and Tsoay's. As they began
the stiff climb they carried only their bows, the quivers slung on their
shoulders, and the long-bladed knives. But they flitted like shadows
and, like the coyotes, their red-brown bodies became indistinguishable
against the bronze of the land.

They should be, Travis judged, not more than an hour away from sundown.
And they had to locate the stranger before the dark closed in. His
respect for their quarry had grown. The unknown might have been driven
by fear, but he held to a good pace and headed intelligently for just
the kind of country which would serve him best. If Travis could only
remember where he had seen the like of that embroidery! It had a
meaning which might be important now....

Tsoay slipped behind a wind-gnarled tree and disappeared. Travis stooped
under a line of bush limbs. Both were working their way south, using the
peak ahead as an agreed landmark, pausing at inter