oo many times lately. If we could
only find out how! Here are no drums, no singing--none of the tricks to
tangle a man's mind that he usually uses to summon his demons. So
without Lumbrilo, without his witch tools, how does he make us see what
is not?"

"That we must discover and speedily, sir. Or else we shall be lost among
the unreal and the real."

"You also have the power. You can save us!" Asaki protested.

Tau drew his arm across his face. Very little of the normal color had
returned to his thin, mobile features. He still leaned against Dane's
supporting arm.

"A man can do only so much, sir. To battle Lumbrilo on his own ground is
exhausting and I can not fight so very often."

"But will he not also be exhausted?"

"I wonder...." Tau gazed beyond the Khatkan to the barren ground where
leopard and rock ape had ceased to be. "This magic is a tricky thing,
sir. It builds and feeds upon a man's own imagination and inner fears.
Lumbrilo, having triggered ours, need not strive at all, but let us
ourselves raise that which will attack us."

"Drugs?" demanded Jellico.

Tau gave a start sufficient to take him out of Dane's loose hold. His
hand went to the packet of aid supplies which was his own care, his eyes
round with wonder and then shrewdly alert.

"Captain, we disinfected those thorn punctures of yours. Thorson, your
foot salve.... But, no, I didn't use anything--"

"You forget, Craig, we all had scratches after that fight with the
apes."

Tau sat down on the ground. With feverish haste he unsealed his medical
supplies, laid out some containers. Then delicately he opened each,
examined its contents closely by eye, by smell, and two by taste. When
he was done he shook his head.

"If these have been in any way meddled with, I would need laboratory
analysis to detect it. And I don't believe that Lumbrilo could hide
traces of his work so cleverly. Or has he been off-planet? Had much to
do with off-worlders?" he asked the Chief Ranger.

"By the nature of his position he is forbidden to space voyage, to have
any close relationship with any off-worlder. I do not think, medic, he
would choose your healing substances for his mischief. There would only
be chance to aid him then in producing the effects he wants. Though
there is often call for first aid in travel, he could not be _certain_
you would use any of your drugs on this trip to the preserve."

"And Lumbrilo _was_ certain. He threatened something such