VII
Darkness closed in while they waited for Nymani's return. There had beenno further attack from the blaster wielder; perhaps he was only tryingto pin them down where they were. Out over the swamp, weird patches ofphosphorescence moved in small ghostly clouds, and bright dots ofinsects with their own built-in lighting systems flashed spark-fashionor sailed serenely on regular flight plans. At night the wonder of theplace was far removed from the squalid reality of the day. They chewedon their rations, drank sparingly of the water, and tried to keep alertto any sight or sound.
That monotonous undertone, which might or might not be drums, continuedas a basic hum to the noises of the night, drowned out at intervals by asplash, a mutter or cry from some swamp creature. Beside Dane, Jellicostiffened, moved his blaster, as someone wriggled through the brush,trilling softly.
"Off-worlders," Nymani reported in gasps to Asaki, "and outlaws, too.They make a hunting sing--tomorrow they march for a killing."
Asaki rested his chin on his broad forearm. "Outlaws?"
"They show no lord's badge. But each I saw wears a bracelet of three,five, or ten tails. They are Trackers indeed, and Hunters of the best!"
"They have huts?"
"Not so. There are no dwellers in the inners courts here." Out of habitNymani used the polite term for the women of his race. "I would say theytarry only for the space of a hunt. And on the boots of one I saw saltcrust."
"Salt crust!" Asaki snapped and half arose. "So that is the type of lurethey use. There must be a saline mire near here to pull game--"
"How many off-worlders?" Jellico broke in.
"Three who are Hunters, one who is different."
"How different?" questioned Asaki.
"He wears upon his body garments which are strange; on his head a roundcovering such as we see upon the off-worlders of the ships--"
"A spaceman!"
Asaki laughed harshly. "Why not? They must have some method oftransporting their hides."
"You can't tell me," Jellico returned, "that anyone is able to set aship down in this muck. It would simply be buried for all time."
"But, Captain, what type of a spaceport does a Free Trader need? Do younot planet your own ship on worlds where there are no waiting cradles,no fitter shops, none of the conveniences such as mark the field Combinemaintains on Xecho?"
"Of course I do. But one does need a reasonably smooth stretch ofterritory, open enough so the tail flames won't start a forest fire. Youdon't ever ride a tail push down in a swamp!"
"Which testifies to a trail out of here, fairly well-traveled, and somekind of a usable landing space not too far away," Asaki replied. "Andthat could very well serve us."
"But they know we are here," Tau pointed out.
It was Nymani's turn to laugh. "Man from the stars, there is no trail sowell-hidden that a Ranger of the preserves cannot nose it out, nor anyHunter--be he a two or five bracelet veteran--who can keep pinned down adetermined man of the forest service!"
Dane lost interest in the argument at that moment. He was at the edge oftheir line, the nearest to the swamp, and he had been watching patchesof ghostly light flitting above the rank water-weeds. For the past fewmoments those wisps of faded radiance had been gathering into a growinganthropomorphic blot hanging over the morass several yards away. And themisty outlines were now assuming more concrete shape. He watched,unable to believe in what he was seeing. At first the general outline,non-defined as it was, made him think of a rock ape. But there were nopointed ears above the round skull, no snout on the visage turned inprofile toward him.
More and more patches of swamp luminescence were drawn to that glowingfigure. What balanced there now, as if walking the treacherous surfaceof the swampland, was no animal. It was a man, or the semblance of one,a small, thin man--a man he had seen once before, on the terrace ofAsaki's mountain fortress.
The thing stood almost complete, its head cocked in what was an attitudeof listening.
"Lumbrilo!" Dane identified it, still knowing that the witch doctorcould not be standing there listening for them. But, to shake him stillfarther, the head turned at his cry. Only there were no eyes, nofeatures on the white expanse which should have been a face. And somehowthat made the monster more menacing, convincing Dane against sane logicthat the thing _was_ spying on them.
"Demon!" That was Nymani; and over his sudden quaver, robbed of all theconfidence which had been there only moments earlier, came Asaki'sdemand:
"What stands there, Medic? Tell us that!"
"A whip to drive us out of hiding, sir. As you know as well as I. IfNymani spied upon them, then they have spied upon us in turn. And this,I think, also answers another question. If there is a canker of troubleon Khatka, then Lumbrilo is close to its root."
"Nymani!" The Chief Ranger's voice was the crack of a lash. "Will youforget again that you are a man, and run crying for shelter against ashaft of light? As this off-world Medic says, Lumbrilo fashions such asthat to drive us into our enemies' hands!"
The shadow thing in the swamp moved, putting its foot forward on surfacewhich would not bear the weight of a human body, taking a deliberatestep and then another, heading for the concealing brush where thefugitives lay.
"Can you get rid of it, Tau?" Jellico asked in his usual crisp voice. Hemight have been inquiring about some problem aboard the _Queen_.
"I'd rather get at the source." There was a grim note in the Medic'sreply. "And to do that I want to look at their camp."
"Well enough!" Asaki crept back in the brush.
The ghost of that which was not a man had reached the shore of theisland, stood there, its blank head turned toward them. Weird as it was,now that the first shock of sighting it was over, the spacemen couldaccept and dismiss it as they had not been so able to dismiss thephantom rock ape.
"If that thing was sent to drive us," Dane ventured, "wouldn't we beplaying their game by going inland now?"
The Chief Ranger did not pause in his crawl to the left. "I think not.They do not expect us to arrive with our wits about us. Panic-strickenmen are easy to pull down. This time Lumbrilo has overreached himself.Had he not played that game with the rock ape, he might have been ableto stampede us now."
Though the white thing continued to move inland, it did not changecourse to fall in behind them on the new route. Whatever it was, it didnot possess a mind.
There was a rustling, faint but distinguishable. Then Dane caughtNymani's whisper.
"The one left to watch the inland trail does so no longer. We need notfear an alarm from _him_. Also, here is another blaster for our use."
Away from the open by the swamp, the gloom was deeper. Dane was guidedonly by the noises of the less-experienced Jellico and Tau made in theirprogress.
They edged down into a small cut, floored with reeds and mud, where someof the moisture from the soggy land about them gathered into a halfpool. Straight through this swale the Khatkans set course.
The drum beat grew louder. Now there was a glow against the dark--fireahead? Dane squirmed forward and at last gained a vantage point fromwhich to survey the poachers' camp.
There were shelters erected there, three of them, but they were mainlyroofs of leaves and branches. In two of them were stored bales of hidessewn into plastic cloth, ready to ship. Before the third hut loungedfour off-worlders. And Nymani was very right; one of them wore ship'suniform.
To the right of the fire was a ring of natives and another man, slightlyapart, who beat the drum. But of the witch doctor there was no sign. AndDane, thinking of that mist-born thing at the swamp's edge, shivered. Hecould believe Tau's explanation of the drug which producedhallucinations back on the mountain side. But how that likenessfashioned of phosphorescence had been sent by an absent man to hunt hisenemies was a eerie puzzle.
"Lumbrilo is not here." Nymani's thoughts must have been moving alongthe same path.
Dane could hear movements in the dark beside him.
"There's a long-distance com unit in
that third hut," Tau observed.
"So I see," Jellico snapped. "Could you reach your men over the mountainwith that, sir?"
"I do not know. But if Lumbrilo is not here, how can he make his imagewalk the night?" the Chief Ranger demanded impatiently.
"We shall see. If Lumbrilo is not here--he shall come." And the promisein Tau's tone was sure. "Those off-worlders will have to be out ofaction first. And with that walking thing sent to drive us in, they mustbe waiting for us."
"If they have sentries out, I will silence them!" promised Nymani.
"You have a plan?" Asaki's wide shoulders and upheld head showed for aninstant against the light from the camp.
"You want Lumbrilo," Tau replied. "Very well, sir, I believe I can givehim to you, and in the doing discredit him with your Khatkans. But notwith the off-worlders free to move."
The program was not going to be easy, Dane decided. Every one of thepoachers was armed with a Patrol blaster of the latest type, and a smallpart of his mind speculated as to what would be the result of thatinformation conveyed to official quarters. Free Traders and Patrolmendid not always see eye-to-eye over the proper action to be taken on thegalactic frontier. The _Queen's_ crew had had one such brush withauthority in the immediate past. But each realized that the other had animportant role in the general scheme of things, and if it came to aclash between the law and outlaws, Free Traders fought beside thePatrol.
"Why not give them what they expect--with reservations?" inquiredJellico. "They've set us up to be stampeded into camp, flying ahead ofthat tame ghost of theirs. Suppose we do stampede--after Nymani hasremoved any sentries--stampede so well we sweep right over them? I wantto get at that com unit."
"You don't think they'll just mow us down as we come in?"
"You delivered a blow to Lumbrilo's pride; he won't be satisfied withjust your burning," the captain answered Tau, "not if I'm any judge ofcharacter. And we'd furnish hostages of a sort--especially the ChiefRanger. No, if they had wanted to kill us they would have shot us offthose islands when we came here. There would have been no playing aroundwith ghosts and goblins."
"There is reason in your words. And it is true they would like to haveme, those outlaws down there," Asaki commented. "I am of the Magawayaand we have pressed always for stronger security methods to be usedagainst such as they. But I do not see how we can take the camp."
"We won't go in from the front--as they expect us to do. But a try fromthe north, getting at the off-worlders first.... Three men causingenough disturbance to cover operations of the other two...."
"So?" There was a moment of silence as the Chief Ranger evaluated that.Then he added a few comments of his own.
"That off-worlder who wears spaceman's clothing, his weapon is notdrawn, though the others are ready. But I believe that you are right inthinking they expect to be warned by sentries. Those we can see to.Suppose then, Captain, you and I play the fear-crazed men running fromdemons. Nymani will cover us from the dark and your two men--"
Tau spoke up, "Give me leave to flush out our other quarry, sir. Ibelieve I can keep him occupied. Dane, you'll take the drum."
"Drum?" With his mind on blasters, it was startling to be offered anoise-maker.
"It's your business to get that drum. And when you get it I want you tobeat out 'Terra Bound.' You certainly can play that, can't you?"
"I don't understand," Dane began and then swallowed the rest of hisprotest, knowing that Tau was not going to explain why he needed to havethe hackneyed popular song of the spaceways played in a Khatkan swamp.As a Free Trader he had had quite a few odd jobs handed him during thepast couple of years, but this was the first time he had been ordered toserve as a musician.
They waited for Nymani through dragging minutes. Surely those in thecamp would expect their arrival soon now? Dane's fire ray was in hishand as he measured the distance to the drummer's stand.
"It is done," Nymani whispered from the darkness behind them. Jellicoand the Chief Ranger moved to the left; Tau crept to the right and Danepushed level with the medic.
"When they move," Tau's lips were beside his ear, "jump for that drum. Idon't care how you get it, but get it and keep it!"
"Yes, sir!"
There was a wailing cry from the north, a howl of witless fear. Thesingers stopped in mid-note, the drummer paused, his hand uplifted. Danedarted forward in a plunge which carried him to that man. The Khatkandid not have time to rise from his knees as the barrel of the fire rodstruck his head, sending him spinning. Then the drum was cradled in thespaceman's arm, close to his chest, his weapon aimed across it at thestartled natives.
The crackle of blaster fire, the shrill whine of needlers in action,raised a bedlam from the other end of the camp. Backing up a little,Dane went down on one knee, his weapon ready to sweep over thebewildered natives, the drum resting on the earth against his body.Keeping the fire rod steady, his left hand went to work, not in themuted cadence the Khatkan drummer had chosen, but in hard and vigorousthumps which rolled across the clamor of the fight. There was noforgetting the beat of "Terra Bound" and he delivered it with force, sothat the familiar da-dah-da-da droned loud enough to awaken the wholecamp.
Dane's move appeared to completely baffle the Khatkan outlaws. Theystared at him, the whites of their eyes doubly noticeable in their darkfaces, their mouths a little agape. As usual the unexpected had driventhem off guard. He dared not look away from that gathering to see howthe fight at the other end of the camp was progressing. But he did seeTau's advance.
The medic came into the light of the fire, not with his ordinaryloose-limbed spaceman's stride, but mincingly, with a dancing step, andhe was singing to the drum beat of "Terra Bound." Dane could notunderstand the words, but he knew that they patterned in and out of thedrum beats, weaving a net between singer and listeners as Lumbrilo hadwoven his net on the mountain terrace.
Tau had them! Had every one of the native outlaws ensnared, so that Danerested his weapon across his knee and took up the lower beat with thefingers of his right hand as well.
_Da-dah-da-da_.... The innocuous repetitive refrain of the original songwhich had been repeating itself in his mind faded, and somehow hecaught the menace in the new words Tau was mouthing.
Twice the medic shuffled about a circle of his own making. Then hestooped, took a hunting knife from the belt of the nearest Khatkan andheld it point out toward the dark east. Dane would not have believed themedic knew the drill he now displayed, for with no opponent save thedancing firelight he fought a knife duel, feinting, striking, twisting,retreating, attacking, all in time to the beat of the drum Dane was nolonger conscious of playing. And as he strove it was very easy topicture another fighting against him. So that when the knife came up ina vicious thrust which was the finish of his last attack, Dane staredstupidly at the ground, half expecting to see a body lying there.
Once more Tau ceremoniously saluted with his blade to the east. Then helaid it on the ground and stood astride its gleaming length.
"Lumbrilo!" His confident voice arose above the call of the drum."Lumbrilo--I am waiting."