won't start a forest fire. You
don't ever ride a tail push down in a swamp!"

"Which testifies to a trail out of here, fairly well-traveled, and some
kind of a usable landing space not too far away," Asaki replied. "And
that could very well serve us."

"But they know we are here," Tau pointed out.

It was Nymani's turn to laugh. "Man from the stars, there is no trail so
well-hidden that a Ranger of the preserves cannot nose it out, nor any
Hunter--be he a two or five bracelet veteran--who can keep pinned down a
determined man of the forest service!"

Dane lost interest in the argument at that moment. He was at the edge of
their line, the nearest to the swamp, and he had been watching patches
of ghostly light flitting above the rank water-weeds. For the past few
moments those wisps of faded radiance had been gathering into a growing
anthropomorphic blot hanging over the morass several yards away. And the
misty outlines were now assuming more concrete shape. He watched,
unable to believe in what he was seeing. At first the general outline,
non-defined as it was, made him think of a rock ape. But there were no
pointed ears above the round skull, no snout on the visage turned in
profile toward him.

More and more patches of swamp luminescence were drawn to that glowing
figure. What balanced there now, as if walking the treacherous surface
of the swampland, was no animal. It was a man, or the semblance of one,
a small, thin man--a man he had seen once before, on the terrace of
Asaki's mountain fortress.

The thing stood almost complete, its head cocked in what was an attitude
of listening.

"Lumbrilo!" Dane identified it, still knowing that the witch doctor
could not be standing there listening for them. But, to shake him still
farther, the head turned at his cry. Only there were no eyes, no
features on the white expanse which should have been a face. And somehow
that made the monster more menacing, convincing Dane against sane logic
that the thing _was_ spying on them.

"Demon!" That was Nymani; and over his sudden quaver, robbed of all the
confidence which had been there only moments earlier, came Asaki's
demand:

"What stands there, Medic? Tell us that!"

"A whip to drive us out of hiding, sir. As you know as well as I. If
Nymani spied upon them, then they have spied upon us in turn. And this,
I think, also answers another question. If there is a canker of trouble
on Khatka, then Lumbrilo is close to its root