ging of the great fallen trees. And there
were obvious signs that the work was still going on. In the close-ups,
he could see the bipedal beasts wielding cutting instruments.

Dodeth forced himself to calmness and glared at the bathygraphs. Fry
it, they _had_ to be fakes. A new species might appear only once in a
hundred years, but according to Yerdeth, this couldn't possibly be a
new species. What was Wygor's purpose in lying, though? Why should he
falsify data? And it must be he; he had said that he had seen the
beasts himself. Well, Dodeth would have to find out.

"Tool users, eh?" he said, amazed at the calmness of his voice. Such
animals weren't unusual. The sniths used tools for digging and even
for fighting each other. And the hurkles dammed up small streams with
logs to increase their marshland. It wasn't immediately apparent what
these beasts were up to, but it was far too destructive to allow it to
go on.

But, fry it all, it _couldn't_ be going on!

There were only two alternatives. Either Wygor was a liar or Yerdeth
didn't know what he was talking about. And there was only one way of
finding out which was which.

"Ardan! Get my equipment ready! We're going on a field trip! Wygor,
you get the rest of the expedition ready; you and I are going up to
see what all this is about." He jabbed at the communicator button.
"Fry it! Why should this have to happen in my sector? Hello! Give me
an inter-city connection. I want to talk to Baythim Venns,
co-ordinator of Ecological Control, in Faisalla."

He looked up at Wygor. "Scatter off, fry it! I want to--Oh, hello,
Baythim, sir. Dodeth. Have you had any reports on a new species--a
bipedal one? What? No, sir; I'm not kidding. One of my men has brought
in 'graphs of the thing. Frankly, I'm inclined to think it's a hoax of
some kind, but I'd like to ask you to check to see if it's been
reported in any of the other areas. We're located a little out of the
way here, and I thought perhaps some of the stations farther north or
south had seen it. Yes. That's right: two locomotive limbs, two
handling limbs. Big as a human, and they hold their bodies
perpendicular to the ground. Yes, sir, I know it sounds silly, and I'm
going out to check the story now, but you ought to see these
bathygraphs. If it's a hoax, there's an expert behind it. Very well,
sir; I'll wait."

Dodeth scowled. Baythim had sounded as if he, Dodeth, had lost his
senses.

_Maybe I have_, he thought. _