Extrone laughed. "This is enough." He gestured with the rifle and stood
up.
"I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said.
"One is enough in _my_ camp."
* * * * *
The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. Extrone moved
agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. When they came to
the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering
hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction.
"This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started
off.
They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more
alert with each additional foot. Finally, Lin stopped him with a
restraining hand. "They may be quite a way ahead. Hadn't we ought to
bring up the column?"
The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed.
Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively.
The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time.
"They're moving away," Lin said.
"Damn!" Extrone said.
"It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and
fast, too."
"Eh?" Extrone said.
"They charge on scent, sight, or sound. I understand they will track
down a man for as long as a day."
"Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. "Wait a minute."
"Yes?"
"Look," Extrone said. "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking
them? Why not make them come to us?"
"They're too unpredictable. It wouldn't be safe. I'd rather have
surprise on our side."
"You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. "_We_ won't be
the--ah--the bait."
"Oh?"
"Let's get back to the column."
* * * * *
"Extrone wants to see you," Lin said.
Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy.
"What's he want to see _me_ for?"
"I don't know," Lin said curtly.
Ri got to his feet. One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously
at Lin's bare forearm. "Look," he whispered. "You know him. I have--a
little money. If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to
_do_ anything to me--I'd pay you, if you could...."
"You better come along," Lin said, turning.
Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound,
ineffectual. He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where
Extrone was seated, petting his rifle.