appened.

"Don't shoot me for a foreigner," he said, "but just what is wrong? Are
you expecting earthquakes here, are you sure?"

"Sure!" Hananas screeched. "Of course I'm sure. If I wasn't sure I
wouldn't be a quakeman. It's on the way."

"There's no doubt of that," Rhes added. "I don't know how you can tell
on your planet when quakes or vulcanism are going to start, machines
maybe. We have nothing like that. But quakemen, like Hananas here,
always know about them before they happen. If the word can be passed
fast enough, we get away. The quake is coming all right, the only thing
in doubt is how much time we have."

The work went on and there was a good chance they would die long before
it was finished. All for nothing. The only way Jason could get them to
stop would be to admit the ship was useless. He would be killed then and
the grubber chances would die with him. He chewed his lip as the sun set
and the work continued by torchlight.

Hananas paced around, grumbling under his breath, halting only to glance
at the northern horizon. The people felt his restlessness and
transmitted it to the animals. Dogfights broke out and the doryms pulled
reluctantly at their harnesses. With each passing second their chances
grew slimmer and Jason searched desperately for a way out of the trap of
his own constructing.

"Look--" someone said, and they all turned. The sky to the north was lit
with a red light. There was a rumble in the ground that was felt more
than heard. The surface of the water blurred, then broke into patterns
of tiny waves. Jason turned away from the light, looking at the water
and the ship. It was higher now, the top of the stern exposed. There was
a gaping hole here, blasted through the metal by the spaceship's guns.

"Rhes," he called, his words jammed together in the rush to get them
out. "Look at the ship, at the hole blasted in her stern. I landed on
the rockets and didn't know how badly she was hit. But the guns hit the
star drive!"

Rhes gaped at him unbelievingly as he went on. Improvising, playing by
ear, trying to manufacture lies that rang of the truth.

"I watched them install the drive--it's an auxiliary to the other
engines. It was bolted to the hull right there. It's gone now, blown up.
The boat will never leave this planet, much less go to another star."

He couldn't look Rhes in the eyes after that. He sank back into the furs
that had been propped behind him, feeling the weakness even