strange new emotion, part frustration
and part despair, rose up in his breast, and close upon that the
dawning realization that he was being cheated of a last hope.

Even then he didn't hurry. He followed Kueelo, swinging along in slow
loping strides, but not gaining. He felt weak and sick. That jagged
need for tsith was again sawing away at his entrails. His feet tangled
in the outlying swamp grass, he plunged headlong and picked himself
up.

Kueelo was heading for higher ground away from the compound. Kueelo
was yelling as he ran. Latham wondered why the devil he was yelling.
Then, some distance ahead, Latham could see a third man lifting
himself from the ground. The Jovian! Suddenly Latham remembered him.
The Jovian had been with them last night too. Now Kueelo was tugging
at the man, yelling, showing him the Josmian.

The Jovian hoisted his bulk erect, turned and waited for Latham,
grinning broadly. The grin didn't fool Latham. All Jovians grinned.
Some of them grinned while breaking a man's vertebrae. This was one of
the big ones, Latham noticed, and he was ugly, with long reaching arms
and wiry hair and a face that looked as if he'd slept in it.

Latham stopped just short of him and reached out a hand. "I want the
Josmian," said Joel Latham.

The Jovian came a step forward. "You leave Kueelo alone. Kueelo, he's
my friend."

"I'm going to have that Josmian," said Joel Latham.

The Jovian thrust out a huge fist with amazing speed. Latham caught at
it and hung on grimly. The Jovian brought his other hand around in an
arc that caught the Earthman across the face, sent him sprawling ten
feet away.

"Josmian belongs to us, now. You leave us alone."

Joel Latham sat there wiping blood from his face, watching the bestial
pair as they headed around the compound and into the matted jungle.
His last glimpse, just before darkness swallowed them up, was of
Kueelo grinning gleefully back at him.

Latham sighed. He stood up. The blow had shaken some of the resolve
out of him. He turned east, northeast, east-by-north, like a compass
on a binge. Then he saw Penger watching him from the outer gate of the
compound. Apparently Penger had seen it all.

Latham turned and ran toward Jake Penger.

"You saw them!" Latham wailed. "You saw it. They stole my Josmian!
You've got to stop them!"

* * * * *

Penger planted his feet wide apart and surveyed the snivelling
Earthman. Penger's dark f