He managed to jab old Kilki on the side of his thick skull with one elbow, a limited satisfaction because Kilki ranked only about fourth in the Council of Elders. Guthrie wished he could get at Thyggar, who had ruled that he be kept inside one of the cramped stone huts for several weeks following his capture.

Kilki rubbed the knobby side of his head philosophically and said, "How we know they are not good spirits called to steal you back to the sky, Gut'rie?"

"Huh!" snorted the Terran, pointing to the disheveled pair with the search party. "They don't look like good spirits to me!"

"That is what you say," grunted Kilki. "Maybe we burn—then be sure!"

The man was Guthrie's height or an inch taller, and broad of shoulder. He had a strong face with bold, regular features slightly spoiled by a thick stub of a nose. High cheekbones gave his eyes a masked expression. Though sweat-darkened, his hair appeared to be blond and wavy.

The girl did not stare at Guthrie with the same blend of irritation and expectancy. Instead, her gray eyes shone with a trusting relief that caused the spacer to grimace uncomfortably. He thought she was probably pretty, if a trifle thin, but could not be sure. Somewhere on the way—he guessed in the marsh about a mile south of the village—she had fallen flat in the mud.

"Who'n'ell are these monkeys?" demanded the man. "I couldn't get anything out of them except signals to go faster."

He almost succeeded in controlling a querulous note in his voice by trying to assume the buddy-to-buddy tone of one Terran discussing with another the universal peculiarity of aborigines. He watched Guthrie carefully.

"What did you come down in?" asked the latter abruptly.

The other stared. The girl, who had been sagging wearily against the stocky form of the nearest Skirkh, straightened up with a hurt look.

"It was an emergency rocket of the Mount Pico. Mr. Trent piloted it down here after the others ... passed on ... from their burns—"

"Explosion and fire just before we were to pass this system on the way to Altair," explained Trent rapidly. He had retreated from hope to a worried expression. "I don't know what did it; they braked from interstellar drive to give the rockets a chance at these planets. It all went pretty fast."

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