"Loud and clear," came the familiar voice. "We're getting sight and
sound perfectly."
"Have you got your corps of experts working on everything that comes
in?"
"Naturally," said Kielgaard. "But I wouldn't advise you to stop and
chat right now. Those boys seem to mean business."
"Do they look like planetary police to you?"
"No. They don't look like anything that was born on that planet."
"That's exactly the way they strike me. Well, maybe I can make them
some more trouble."
Dan got out a map and noted a long, fairly straight road from one
of the cities, near which he had a mataform transceiver, to another
distant city. From this distant city, a winding river curled away to a
city even more distant. That night, Dan intended to make use of road
and river alike. But right now, he spent an hour or so moving his goods
to a place further away from the landing; then he partly reassembled
the boat, and cat-napped till evening. He was awoken at frequent
intervals by sudden drops of men and more of the tiger-like animals, at
each of the four places where they had been before. Each time there was
sudden activity at one of these places, a little alarm buzzed in Dan's
ear, and he slid on the helmet to watch a renewed search of the ground.
He had the impression that someone had reported nothing was to be
found, and that this word had been passed along to someone who had said
there _must_ be something there, and it had better be found or else.
The search this time was much more careful. But it was not till the
last place was searched that one of them came very close to the spy
unit, and reached out toward it.
Dan regretfully slid back a protective cover at the lower edge of the
helmet and pressed a button underneath. There was a dazzling flash,
and then the scene was gone.
Dan would much rather have kept them thinking that maybe there was
nothing to look for after all. But he could tell from their numbers
and zeal that he was not likely to have very much his own way on this
planet.
* * * * *
That night, Dan sent a glider under power down the long road to the
distant city. The glider was low enough to avoid the usual detectors,
but happily free of the need to dodge an endless succession of tree
trunks. The river served much the same purpose, so that well before
dawn, Dan had mataform transceivers planted near each of the two new
cities, and also at a place right at the edge of the river. From
this spot, Dan threw out into the river a heavily weighted mataform
transceiver. He returned to the partly assembled boat and methodically
put it together again. This time, however, he fitted sections together
differently and left the heavy engine out entirely. He put his arms
around one end of the thing he had put together and mentally said a
keyword.
The river water rushed coldly around him, gritty with silt sweeping
along the bottom. There was a _chug_ in his ears as the water triggered
off the grab anchors around the rim of the shelter. Dan said another
key word and he was inside. He snapped on a light and looked carefully
around, but found no sign of a leak.
He transferred the rest of his goods, checked to see that the selective
membrane panel was keeping the oxygen at the right level inside, then
lay down to catch up on sleep.
The following day, he took three of his small transceivers, and went by
the mataform to a place outside the nearest city.
A short walk along a winding trail took Dan past a series of huts and
cabins to a rough covered stand displaying combs, brooms, and other
simple merchandise, along with a dusty case of what looked like soda
pop, and a dust-covered carton of what appeared to be candy bars.
The soda pop was labeled "GAS," and the candy had a card labeled
"TOOTHROT." The girl in charge of the stand smiled and said, "Good
morning, Death."
There was no one else around, and the girl spoke in a perfectly natural
way, so Dan smiled back and said, "Good morning."