vals to examine the
landscape for any hint of a man and horse.

Travis squirmed snake fashion into an opening between two rock pillars
and lay there, the westering sun hot on his bare shoulders and back, his
chin propped on his forearm. In the band holding back his hair he had
inserted some concealing tufts of wiry mountain grass, the ends of which
drooped over his rugged features.

Only seconds earlier he had caught that fragmentary warning from one of
the coyotes. What they sought was very close, it was right down there.
Both animals were in ambush, awaiting orders. And what they found was
familiar, another confirmation that the fugitive was Terran, not native
to Topaz.

With searching eyes, Travis examined the site indicated by the coyotes.
His respect for the stranger was raised another notch. In time either he
or Tsoay might have sighted that hideaway without the aid of the animal
scouts; on the other hand, they might have failed. For the fugitive had
truly gone to earth, using some pocket or crevice in the mountain wall.

There was no sign of the horse, but a branch here and there had been
pulled out of place, the scars of their removal readable when one knew
where to look. Odd, Travis began to puzzle over what he saw. It was
almost as if whatever pursuit the stranger feared would come not at
ground level but from above; the precautions the stranger had taken were
to veil his retreat to the reaches of the mountain side.

Had he expected any trailer to make a flanking move from up that slope
where the Apaches now lay? Travis' teeth nipped the weathered skin of
his forearm. Could it be that at some time during the day's journeying
the fugitive had doubled back, having seen his trackers? But there had
been no traces of any such scouting, and the coyotes would surely have
warned them. Human eyes and ears could be tricked, but Travis trusted
the senses of Naginlta and Nalik'ideyu far above his own.

No, he did not believe that the rider expected the Apaches. But the man
did expect someone or something which would come upon him from the
heights. The heights.... Travis rolled his head slightly to look at the
upper reaches of the hills about him--with suspicion.

In their own journey across the mountains and through the pass they had
found nothing threatening. Dangerous animals might roam there. There had
been some paw marks, one such trail the coyotes had warned against. But
the type of precautions the stranger ha