He always stopped there. He knew what he might also discover--the
skeleton of Willard, stretched on an altar. That picture always made
his stomach go cold and tight.
That night Brown complained of a splitting headache. They camped near a
stream, and Garth accompanied the Captain down to the bank, with canvas
pails. Jupiter was invisible--they had not seen the sky for a week--but
the red light was fading.
"Not too close," Garth cautioned. "Let me test it first."
Brown stared at him. "What now? I'm getting to expect anything here."
The man's expressionless face showed signs of strain and exhaustion. He
had no nerves, apparently, but the gruelling journey had told on him
nevertheless.
Garth used his knife to cut down a sapling. He impaled a leaf on its
point and extended it gingerly over the dark water. After a moment he
felt a shock like a striking fish, and the pole was nearly wrenched
from his hands. And he wrestled with it, Brown's hands gripped the
sapling.
"What the devil! Garth--"
"Let it go. I was only testing, anyway." The pole was dragged into the
water, where it thrashed about violently for a few moments.
"What is it?"
* * * * *
Garth was searching through the underbrush for something.
"Water-snakes. Big ones--perfectly transparent. They wait for some
animal to come along and take a drink. Then--bang!" He nodded. "Here we
are. We'll find a lot of the Noctoli flowers from now on."
He brought out a bloom nearly a foot in diameter, with leaves of pulpy,
glossy black, a thick powdering of silver in its cup. "This is Noctoli,
Captain. Looks harmless, doesn't it?"
"Yeah." Brown rubbed his forehead. "The pollen gives you amnesia?"
"In the daytime, when it's active. It's phototropic--needs light.
Jupiter can't have set yet, so this ought to work." Garth found another
pole, speared the flower on its tip, and extended the blossom over the
water. He shook the silver dust into the stream.
"It works fast. The snakes will be paralyzed in a few seconds. The
current carries off the pollen, we dip up the water we need--and that's
that."
Paula appeared through the bushes, glancing around warily. In the last
week everyone had learned to be alert always. Lines of fatigue showed
on her pale face. Red-gold hair was plastered damply on her forehead.
"Carver--"
"What's up?"