The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Keeper, by Henry Beam Piper

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Title: The Keeper

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19338]
Last updated: January 17, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KEEPER ***

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Venture Science Fiction, July 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

_Evil men had stolen his treasure, and Raud set out with his
deer rifle and his great dog Brave to catch the thieves
before they could reach the Starfolk. That the men had
negatron pistols meant little--Raud was the Keeper...._

THE KEEPER

by H. BEAM PIPER

* * * * *

When he heard the deer crashing through brush and scuffling the dead
leaves, he stopped and stood motionless in the path. He watched them
bolt down the slope from the right and cross in front of him, wishing
he had the rifle, and when the last white tail vanished in the
gray-brown woods he drove the spike of the ice-staff into the
stiffening ground and took both hands to shift the weight of the
pack. If he'd had the rifle, he could have shot only one of them. As
it was, they were unfrightened, and he knew where to find them in the
morning.

Ahead, to the west and north, low clouds massed; the white front of
the Ice-Father loomed clear and sharp between them and the blue of the
distant forests. It would snow, tonight. If it stopped at daybreak, he
would have good tracking, and in any case, it would be easier to get
the carcasses home over snow. He wrenched loose the ice-staff and
started forward again, following the path that wound between and among
and over the irregular mounds and hillocks. It was still an hour's
walk to Keeper's House, and the daylight was