and directly towards theworksite. They were spotted as they crossed the empty ground and aftersome hesitation the guard ran in pursuit. Jason was leading the enemydirectly to his precious steam-wagon, but he had no choice. The thingwas certainly making its presence known in any case, and unless hereached it at once the head of steam would be gone and they would betrapped. He leaped the still recumbent guard at the entrance and rantowards his machine. Snarbi was cowering behind one wheel but therewas no time to give him any attention. As Jason jumped onto theplatform the safety valve closed and the sudden stillness wasfrightening. The steam was gone.
With frantic grabs he spun valves and shot one glance at theindicator: there wasn't enough steam left to roll the meters. Watergurgled and the boiler hissed and clacked at him while screams ofanger came from the D'zertanoj as they ran into the enclosure and sawthe bootleg _caroj_. Jason thrust the end of a molotail into thefirebox; it caught fire and he turned and hurled it at them. The angrycries turned into screams of fear as the tongues of flame licked up atthe pursuers and they retreated in disorder. Jason ran after them andhastened their departure with another molotail. They seemed to beretreating as far as the refinery walls, but he could not be sure inthe darkness if some of them weren't creeping around to the sides.
He hurried back to the _caroj_, tapped on the still-unmoving pressureindicator and opened the fuel feed wide. As an afterthought he wireddown the safety valve since his reinforced boiler should hold morepressure than the valve had been originally adjusted for. Once thiswas finished he chewed at his oily fingernails since there was nothingelse that could be done until the pressure built up again. TheD'zertanoj would rally, someone would take charge, and they wouldattack the worksite. If they had enough steam before this happened,they would escape. If not--
"Mikah, and you, too, you cowering slob Snarbi you, get behind thisthing and push," Jason said.
"What has happened," Mikah asked. "Have you started this revolution?If so I will give no aid...."
"We're escaping, if that's all right with you. Just I, Ijale and aguide to show us the way. You don't have to come--"
"I will join you. There is nothing criminal in escaping from thesebarbarians."
"Very nice of you to say so. Now push. I want this steamobile in thecenter, far from all the walls, and pointing towards the desert. Downthe valley I guess, is that right, Snarbi?"
"Down the valley, sure, that's the way." His voice was still raspingfrom the earlier throttling, Jason was pleased to notice.
"Stop it here and everyone aboard. Grab onto those bars I've boltedalong the sides so you won't get bounced off, if we ever start movingthat is."
Jason took a quick look through his workshop to make sure everythingthey might need was already loaded, then reluctantly climbed aboardhimself. He blew out the lantern and they sat there in the darkness,their faces lit from below by the flickering glow from the firebox,while the tension mounted. There was no way to measure time since eachsecond took an eternity to drag by.
The walls of the worksite cut off any view of the outside and within afew moments imagination had peopled the night with silent hordescreeping towards them, huddling about the thin barrier of leather,ready to swoop down and crush them in an instant.
"Let's run for it," Snarbi gurgled and tried to jump from theplatform. "We're trapped here, we'll never get away...."
Jason tripped him and knocked him flat, then pounded his head againstthe floor planks a few times until he quieted.
"I can sympathize with that poor man," Mikah said severely. "You are abrute, Jason, to punish him for his natural feelings. Cease yoursadistic attack and join me in a prayer."
"If this poor man you are so sorry for had simply done his duty andwatched the boiler, we would all be safely away from here by now. Andif you have enough breath for a prayer, put it to better use byblowing into the firebox. It's not going to be wishes or prayers thatgets us out of here, just a head of steam."
* * * * *
A howled battlecry was echoed by massed voices and a squad ofD'zertanoj burst in through the entrance, and at the same instant therear of the leather wall went down and more armed men swarmed over it.The immobile _caroj_ was trapped between the two groups of attackerswho laughed happily as they charged. Jason cursed and lit fourmolotails at the same time and hurled them two and two in oppositedirections. Before they hit he had jumped to the steam valve and woundit open; with a hissing clank the _caroj_ shuddered and got underway.
For the moment the attackers were held back by the walls of flame andscreamed even louder as the machine moved away at right angles frombetween their two groups. The air whistled with crossbow bolts, butmost were badly aimed and only a few thudded into the baggage. Witheach revolution of the wheels their speed picked up and when they hitthe walls the hides parted with a creaking snap. Strips of leatherwhipped at them, then they were through.
The shouts and the fires grew dimmer behind them as they streaked downthe valley at a suicidal pace, hissing, rattling and crashing over thebumps. Jason clung to the tiller and shouted for Mikah to come relievehim, since if he let go of the thing they would turn and crash in aninstant, and as long as he held it he couldn't cut down the steam.Some of this finally penetrated to Mikah because he crawled forwardgrasping desperately to every hand-hold until he crouched besideJason.
"Grab this tiller and hold it straight and steer around anything bigenough to see."
As soon as the steering was taken over Jason worked his way back tothe engine and throttled down; they slowed to a clanking walk thenstopped completely. Ijale moaned and Jason felt as if every inch ofhis body had been beaten with hammers. There was no sign of pursuitsince it would be at least an hour before they could raise steam inthe _caroj_ and no one on foot could have possibly matched theirheadlong pace. The lantern he had used earlier had vanished during thewild ride so Jason dug out another one of his own construction.
"On your feet, Snarbi," he ordered. "I've cracked us all out ofslavery so now it is time for you to do some of the guiding that youwere telling me about. Walk ahead with this light and pick out a nicesmooth track going in the right direction. I never did have a chanceto build headlights for this machine so you will have to do instead."
Snarbi climbed down unsteadily and walked out in front. Jason openedthe valve a bit and they clattered forward on his trail as Mikahturned the tiller to follow. Ijale crawled over and settled herselfagainst Jason's side, shivering with cold and fright. He patted hershoulder.
"Relax," he said, "from now on this is just a pleasure trip."
X
They were six days out of Putl'ko and their supplies were almostexhausted. The country, once they were away from the mountains, becamemore fertile, an undulating pampas of grass with enough streams andherds of beasts to assure that they did not starve. It was fuel thatmattered, and that afternoon Jason had opened their last jar. Theystopped a few hours before dark since their fresh meat was gone, andSnarbi took the crossbow and went out to shoot something for the pot.Since he was the only one who could handle the clumsy weapon with anykind of skill in spite of his ocular deficiencies, and who knew aboutthe local game, this task had been assigned to him. With longercontact his fear of the _caroj_ had lessened, and his self-esteem roseat his recognized ability as a hunter. He strolled arrogantly out intothe knee-high grass, crossbow over his shoulder, whistling tunelesslythrough his teeth. Jason stared after him and once again felt agrowing unease.
"I don't trust that wall-eyed mercenary, I don't trust him for onesecond," he muttered.
"Were you talking to me?" Mikah asked.
"I wasn't but I might as well now. Have you noticed anythinginteresting about the country we have been passing through, anythingdifferent?"
"Nothing. It is a wilderness, untouched by the hand of man."
"Then you must be blind, because I have been seeing things the lasttwo days, and I know just as little about woodcraft as you do. Ijale,"he called, and she looked up from the bo
iler over which she washeating a thin stew of their last _krenoj_. "Leave that stuff, ittastes just as bad whatever is done to it, and if Snarbi has any luckwe'll be having roast in any case. Tell me, have you seen anythingstrange or different about the land we passed through today."
"Nothing strange, just signs of people. Twice we passed places wherethe grass was flat and branches broken as if a _caroj_ passed two orthree days ago, maybe more. And once there was a place where someonehad built a cooking fire, but that was very old."
"Nothing to be seen, Mikah?" Jason asked with raised eyebrows. "Seewhat a lifetime of _krenoj_ hunting can do for the sense ofobservation and terrain."
"I am no savage. You cannot expect me to look out for that sort