with Burr ahead of him and Twist behind him. One man rode ahead of the whole party with a lantern made to shine down but not up. The flying-eyes watched of night, too.

The six horses went all night at a steady pace, single file along a narrow track that dipped and wound through the forest. Price felt sure, from what he had overheard, that they were riding toward some great secret council. He guessed that his fate would be decided there, and probably the fate of the rest of mankind too.There was nothing he could do about it till he got there. Meanwhile
he thought about a long-thighed girl in crimson, with her bright hair
swinging on her shoulders as she walked. He wished he could have had a
closer look at her face. It had seemed beautiful, a clear forehead and
a fine chin, but it was the eyes that told you what a person was, and
he had not been able to study them. Could she be as heartless as all
the Vurna were supposed to be?He thought she must be. His hate of the conquering Star Lords was
rapidly growing. Before they had come, this dark, wild forest he was
riding through had been rich farmland and pleasant towns. And when they
had smashed all that, and built the Citadel to hold the ruined Earth,
they had tried to make men willing captives by telling them that story
of the Ei. It was the old Big Lie technique, but this lie had been too
big for anyone to believe.The woman might not be cruel. Arrin might be only a decent officer in a
hard position. But all the same, they were aliens, despoilers of Earth,
and he was an Earthman. These were his people--Sawyer, Burr, Twist,
even the hateful and suspicious Oakes. These were the ones he would
fight for, and with.If they let him.But they had to let him. He was the man with the plane. And as he rode
wearily through the dark, he thought he knew the argument to use.      

Just before dawn, when the world was at its blackest and most silent,
there was a challenge in the woods ahead, and the man with the lantern
answered. Here and there among the trees other shielded lanterns
flickered, widely scattered, and the woods were full of quiet sounds,
the creak of leather and jingle of bridle-chains, the soft thump of
hoofs, the somnolent blowing of picketed horses. What men there were
spoke in low voices.Price's party dismounted and walked quietly among the picket lines. In
a few minutes they reached the edge of the sheltering woods. The man
with the lantern gave a low whistle, and another man materialized out
of the blank dark ahead."This way," he said. "And watch your foot."Now the man with the lantern followed him, the others coming after
in Indian file. And Price began to see that the darkness was not 

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