ognized the other's skill as the Khatkan took a
course to bring them down on a relatively level patch of sand and
gravel.

Dane raised his head from the shelter of his folded arms. The Chief
Ranger was busy with the pilot, who lay limply against the controls.
Captain Jellico and Tau were already pulling at the buckles of their
protective crash belts. But one look at the front of the flitter told
Dane that it would not take to the air again without extensive repairs.
Its nose was bent up and back, obscuring the forward view completely.
However, the pilot had made a miraculously safe landing considering the
terrain.

Ten minutes later, the pilot restored to consciousness and the gash in
his head bandaged, they held a council of war.

"The com was off, too. I did not have a chance to report before the
crash," Asaki put the situation straightly. "And our exploring parties
have not yet mapped this side of the range; it has a bad reputation
because of the swamp."

Jellico measured the heights now to their west with resigned eyes.
"Looks as if we climb."

"Not here," the Chief Ranger corrected him. "There is no passing through
the crater lake region on foot. We must travel south along the edge of
the mountain area until we do find a scalable way into the preserve
region."

"You seem very certain we are not going to be rescued if we stay right
here," Tau observed. "Why?"

"Because I'm inclined to believe that any flitter that tries to reach us
may run into the same trouble. Also, they have no com fix on us. It will
be at least a day or more before they will even begin to count us
missing, and then they will have the whole northern portion of the
preserve to comb; there are not enough men here--I can give you a
multitude of reasons, Medic."

"One of which might be sabotage?" demanded Jellico.

Asaki shrugged. "Perhaps. I am not loved in some quarters. But there may
also be something fatal to flitters here as there is over Mygra. We
thought the crater lake district safely beyond the swamp influence, but
it may not be so."

But you took the chance of traveling over it, Dane thought, though he
did not comment aloud. Was this another of the Chief Ranger's attempts
to involve them in some private trouble of his own? Though to
deliberately smash up a flitter and set them all afoot in this
wilderness was a pretty drastic move.

Asaki had started to unload emergency supplies from the flitter. They
each had a trail bag fo