se and moved toward the noise. The creature
did not run away. It went about its own affairs with the same peaceful
indifference as before. Lockley ran into a tree. He stumbled over a
fallen branch on the ground. He came to the place where the creature
should be. There was silence. He flicked the flint of his pocket
lighter and in the flash of brightness he saw his prey. It had heard
his approach. It was a porcupine, prudently curled up into a spiky
ball and placidly defying all carnivores, including men. A porcupine
is normally the one wild creature without an enemy. Even men
customarily spare it because so often it has saved the lives of lost
hunters and half-starved travelers. It accomplishes this by its bland
refusal to run away from anybody.

Lockley classed himself as a half-starved traveler. He struck with
the club after a second spark from his lighter-flint.

Presently he had a small, barely smouldering fire of rotted wood. He
cooked over it, and the smell of cooking roused Jill from her
exhausted slumber.

"What--"

"We're having a late supper," said Lockley gravely. "A midnight snack.
Take this stick. There's a loin of porcupine on it. Be careful! It's
hot!"

Jill said, "Oh-h-h-h!" Then, "Is there more for you?"

"Plenty!" he assured her. "I hunted it down with my trusty club, and
only got stuck a half-dozen times while I was skinning and cleaning
it."

She ate avidly, and when she'd finished he offered more, which she
refused until he'd had a share.

They did not quite finish the whole porcupine, but it was an odd and
companionable meal, there in the darkness with the barely-glowing
coals well-hidden from sight. Lockley said, "I'm sort of a news
addict. Shall we see what the wild radio waves are saying?"

"Of course," said Jill. She added awkwardly: "Maybe it's the sudden
food, but--I hope you'll remain my friend after this is all over. I
don't know anyone else I'd say that to."

"Consider," said Lockley, "that I've made an eloquent and grateful
reply."

But his expression in the darkness was not happy. He'd fallen in love
with Jill after meeting her only twice, and both times she had been
with Vale. She intended to marry Vale. But on the evidence at hand
Vale was either dead or a prisoner of the invaders; if the last, his
chances of living to marry Jill did not look good, and if the first,
this was surely no time to revive his memory.

He found a news broadcast. He suspected that most radio s