lanation had been that simple.
New-UN hadn't believed Judith, but she had convinced him, and so he'd
tried on his own responsibility, and simply hadn't made it. And then
they'd brought him here, scarcely hours after Mason and Kriijorl had
themselves been delivered to the teeming colony.

Logical enough, yes. Cain was the kind who would try such a crazy
stunt, alone, with such supreme overconfidence in his own muscle
power. Yet--

"We must not be impatient," Kriijorl interrupted his thought. He stood
up, his blond head nearly touching the top of the plastifabric tent.
"We must be certain and wait for the best time, Mister Cain. For if we
fail in our first attempt, there will not be a second. And it has only
been three days. As yet, we have been left quite to ourselves; even my
life has not been threatened."

Mason noticed the puzzled frown that was across the Ihelian's
forehead. "Do you think--"

"I cannot even guess the reason for that," Kriijorl murmured, as
though more to himself than in answer to Mason's question. "By all the
rules of our conflict, I should be stretched naked for the jungle
beasts by now."

"Forget it!" Cain broke in quickly. "You're alive now, and if we can
have a little action around here maybe you'll stay that way. We've
watched long enough. They don't guard those ships at all. These
breeders they keep drugged to the eyes, so why should they? I say we
just grab one and blast off! Unless somebody's got a better plan, and
I still haven't heard one--"

"Awfully anxious, aren't you, Mister Cain?" Mason asked.

"I'm not afraid of 'em if that's what you mean!"

Lance turned to Kriijorl. "Maybe he's right. We've watched for three
days. What do you think?"

The Ihelian looked out across the colony of low, square-shaped
enclosures and to its far side where the twisted jungle began; to the
spot where the mentacom was housed in a squat, guarded dome of
crudely-shaped steel. Then he turned back to the Earthman, and Mason
saw the uncertainty in his eyes.

"We have gained far less than I had hoped by watching," he said
slowly. "We have learned the number of their guards, and the period of
their change, but perhaps that is all we shall learn. If you think
that as soon as there is darkness--"

"About time!" Cain said sourly. "And it'll be straight for the--"

"To the mentacom first," Mason said quietly. "And after that, to the
ships if we can, Mister Cain." He felt strangely calm as his eyes met