The Bones of Zora

V - THE DIG

As Reith peered forth from his tent, a small voice behind him said: "How's the weather?"

"Drizzling." He turned to see Alicia, barely visible in the pre-dawn light, throw off the quilt and stretch. Through a yawn she asked:

"What does one use for a bathroom here?"

"We haven't given the matter much thought. There's a thicket on the river bank, about fifty meters downstream."

"Do you know what I need, Fergus? A good bath. I haven't had a decent bath in a ten-night, and you don't exactly smell like roses either."

"Little wonder," said Reith, "the way I've been kept hopping. Tell you what! I'll meet you at the river in ten minutes, with a bar of genuine soap."

A quarter-hour later, they stood waist-deep on the sandy bottom of the Zora, splashing, soaping, and scrubbing each other. In the course of this play, they somehow found themselves in each other's arms and, inevitably, began hugging and kissing. At last Alicia drew back and giggled:

"My goodness, and in this cold water, too! I wouldn't have believed it possible, you old satyr!"

"It's been a long time," said Reith. "Well?"

"I'm just a poor, weak, helpless woman, at your mercy."

"About as helpless as Jengis Khan," he said as they waded ashore hand in hand. They dried each other off and started for the tent. At the entrance, Reith paused.

"Wait!" he said. "I should have asked sooner, are you safe? You couldn't have brought your FMs with you."

"I took my last one three days ago," she said. "So I couldn't get preg for another thirty days anyway. Come on!"

Later, Alicia sighed: "Fergus, you're wonderful! How could I have been such an idiot?"

"We all do things we regret later. Speaking of your FMs, I wonder, considering how adamant you were about not mixing children with a profession, why you never had yourself sterilized, as so many career women do?"

"I once intended to, but Lucy McKay warned me away from it."

"The one you learned anthropology from?"

"Yes, the famous xenathropologist. She had herself sterilized young, for the usual reasons—"

"The usual reason," Reith interrupted with a trace of scorn in his voice, "is to be able to screw around ad libitum with impunity."

"If you think I considered a tube job for that reason, you're wrong, whatever Lucy's purposes. But sometimes a woman is put in a position where she has little choice; and accidents will happen."

"She can always say no, unless there's actual force—"

"That's what you think, but I know better! I've been through it three times, beginning with my doctorate. The old creep made it plain that either I gave him his or flunked my oral. And then there was—"

Reith put up a hand: "I know; I know. Please, Lish, don't confess again. But—"

"Anyway, the year after Lucy had herself fixed, she fell desperately in love with a man who wanted a family and wouldn't marry any girl who couldn't give him one. She never really got over it. When I knew her, she'd been through eight husbands and at least a hundred lovers but was still unhappy. So I've left that option open, just in case I should change my mind. Fergus dearest, have you a spare clean toothbrush I could borrow?"

As the only gourmet in Reith's party, Marot had taken over the cooking. While he lit a fire and juggled his supplies to put together a tasty breakfast of native ingredients, Reith shaved with a hand mirror. When the paleontologist called the others together, Reith and Alicia fell ravenously upon their food. Marot explained:

"I must reduce the block containing our specimen, so that we can hoist it to the back of an aya. When I need your muscle, Fergus, I shall call. Amusez-vous donc!" he added with a knowing twinkle.

"He must think I'm a superman," muttered Reith as Marot and the Krishnans trailed off.

"You're superman enough for me," said Alicia. "If you were any superer, you'd wear me out. Let's get at the packing."

As they worked, they talked and gossiped and laughed and paused for kisses. When their task was done, Reith cast an uneasy glance at the leaden sky, saying:

"It'll be just our luck to slog back to Kubyab in another downpour."

When all was ready for departure except for striking the tents, Marot and the Krishnans appeared for their midday repast. Marot said: "The work is finished. Let us eat before we go."

As Marot finished mixing one of his salads and Reith was frying squares of shaihan steak, a rider appeared against the sky. He came down the long slope at a canter, drew up, and sprang lithely from his saddle. Beneath the brim of the floppy straw hat, Reith recognized the shaihan-herd Herg, who had guided them to the site.

"Good morrow, sirs!" said Herg. "The squire hath sent me to see how ye fare, and what treasure ye've found."

"I will gladly show you my treasure," said Marot, looking up from his salad-making. "The rest of you, eat! I shall take Master Herg to the dig."

When the paleontologist and the shaihan-herd returned, the Krishnan wore a puzzled frown. "Is it that these bones turned to stone have magical or medicinal properties?"

"No," said Marot. "We seek them only to give us knowledge. This knowledge, we hope, will explain life on this world and on ours as well."

Herg shook his head. "I shall never understand Ertsuma."

"Your fellow beings speak enviously, do they not, of the wonders of Terran machines and devices? The reason we have them is that certain Terrans first sought out the knowledge needed to make them."

"That idea bears thinking on," said Herg. "But now I maun tell you ye'll soon have company."

"Eh?" said Reith. "Who's coming? Foltz and his people?"

"Nay—at least, not that I wot of. The party whereof I speak is a priest of Bákh, one Behorj bad-Qarz, with guards and attendants numbering a score in all."

"How do you know this?" said Reith, looking sharply at Herg.

"I passed them on my way hither. They sought your camp, so I gave them directions and continued on."

"Why didn't they come along with you?"

"The Reverend Behorj, being aged, travels but slowly. They'll be here within the hour."

"What do they want?"

"A guard told me a rumor hath reached Jeshang, that these diggings by you and Master Folt may cast doubt upon our holy scriptures. Father Behorj comes to inquire."

"Aristide!" said Reith. "Can we load the pack aya quickly and be off for Kubyab before they arrive? We'll try to avoid them—"

"It will take half an hour at least, including the securing of our specimen." Marot shaded his eyes with his hand, peering up the long slope from the river. "Master Herg, do you see figures moving on the skyline?"

"Aye; 'tis indeed the priest's party." Herg looked up at the lowering sky. "I smell more rain, and the squire commanded me to visit Master Folt along of you. The master hath withdrawn Ghirch from that camp for duty with the roundup. So fare ye well!"

Marot said to Reith: "You see, my friend, it is too late to flee. They would arrive while we are still struggling with our block. We must face them with such equanimity as we can muster."

"You have the most training in that kind of argument, so you'd better handle the Reverend Behorj," said Reith.

Herg swung into the saddle and spurred his aya up the long slope.

"I want my say!" said Alicia. 'The Bákhites are making the same mistake that most theological religions on Earth have made. They try to impose their own doctrine on everyone."

"Of course!" said Reith. "A monopoly of the supernatural means more wealth, power, and glory for them."

"There must be some who take a less narrowly selfish view!" Alicia persisted. "I want to warn them that all they'll accomplish is to start a cycle of bloody wars."

"Good Lord!" said Reith. "You're out of your mind, Lish. These people won't listen to your reasoning. They'll take your talk as evidence of heresy and boil you in Lazdai's Kettle."

"But it's wrong, when you see people taking a disastrous course, not at least to tip them off. Don't worry about me; I'll flatter old Behorj and have him eating out of my hand."

"Dear lady," said Marot, "such a course would cause you trouble at Novorecife, even if you avoided difficulties here."

"I don't care. I'm merely doing what's right; somebody's got to."

"It would be a flagrant violation—" began Reith.

"Oh, fishfeathers! I'm not leaking technological secrets. I'm not doing anything Terran missionaries don't do all the time, and Novo tolerates their meddling in native affairs."

"Novo has to, because of pressure from the national governments," growled Reith. "But it's still dangerous meddling. Not long ago, the Reverend Jensen's head was sent to Novo packed in salt. And I just won't allow you to run such a risk."

Alicia jumped up. "Don't tell me what to do, Fergus Reith! You're not my husband, and I wouldn't let you stop me even if you were."

"That's one reason I'm not," barked Reith. "Since it's my hide you're risking along with your own, you will not attend this inquisition. You'll stay in one of the tents, as quiet as Aristide's fossils, until these priests have gone."

"I'd like to see you make me! I'm not going into your damned tent, and—what are you doing?"

Reith, who had risen, said to Marot: "Aristide, fetch me a length of rope, and bear a hand."

Reith seized Alicia's wrist, spun her around, and grabbed her other free arm. She screamed, kicked, and clawed; but with Marot's help, Reith tied her wrists behind her back. Then with another turn of the rope he lashed her ankles together.

"I'll kill you for this!" she panted.

Marot mopped his sweating face with a bandana. "She is strong, that one. I would rather tie up a wildcat."

"Sorry about this, Lish," said Reith. "If you had your way, we'd all be killed. Now for a gag. Aristide, can you sacrifice that handkerchief?"

Soon they carried Alicia, writhing and gurgling, into the larger tent and laid her on one of the pallets.

"That petite must be horribly uncomfortable," said Marot as they emerged. "I hate to treat her thus, but I comprehend the necessity."

Reith looked up the slope. Herg was just riding past the approaching priestly party. The shaihan-herd exchanged brief waves with the newcomers and vanished over the skyline. The priestly procession plodded slowly downhill.

As the visitors neared his camp, Reith saw that a boxlike sedan chair was slung on poles between two ayas in tandem, guided by a groom on the back of the lead animal. The party included six mailed guards, several Krishnans in the garb of shaihan-herds, and several others clad in uniforms of black and white. Reith guessed these to be acolytes or servants of the priest.

The procession halted before the tents. One of the attendants dismounted, handed his reins to another, and ceremoniously opened the door of the litter. He reached inside and took out a stool, which he placed on the ground.

The priest, whose apparel resembled that of his minions save that his diaperlike nether garment was scarlet instead of black, and he wore a red-and-white turban, lowered himself stiffly from the litter. Supporting himself by a staff fitted with a brazen finial of intricate design, he surveyed the Earthmen. Reith and Marot bowed. In slow, careful Mikardandou, Marot said:

"I am Aristide Marot, from the planet Terra. Have I the honor to address the Reverend Behorj bad—" He whispered fiercely to Reith, "What was the rest of his name? The patronymic?"

"Bad-Qarz."

"The Reverend Behorj bad-Qarz?"

The priest gave the Krishnan equivalent of a smile. "That is so, my son. I take it you have been apprised of my coming?"

"Yes, Your Reverence; but only after we had finished our midday meal. Had we known the time of your arrival in advance, we should have prepared a repast for you. As it is, may we offer you any refreshment?"

"Thank you, my son; but we have already dined along the road. Know you the purpose of this visit?"

"As I understand it, you wish to ascertain whether our researches bear upon your holy religion."

"Quite right. Where can we hold this discourse?"

"Doukh, set up three camp chairs and a table, quickly. Your Reverence, this other Terran is my guide, the intrepid Fergus Reith."

"My client flatters me," said Reith.

Behorj and the Terrans seated themselves. The priest leaned forward and fixed sharp black eyes on Marot, saying: 'Tell me, in your own words, what you do here."

Marot: "We seek the remains of beasts that once roamed your planet but no longer exist, save as petrified bones and teeth embedded in the rocks."

"Mean you that there once abounded monsters, like those whereof the legends tell, and that these have utterly vanished?"

"I believe that to be true, Your Reverence. Of course, we Terrans have as yet explored but a fraction of your planet's surface. It may be that creatures we believe extinct still dwell in places that we have not seen. I can only reason by the analogy of my own world, where hundreds of species have become extinct, many in recent centuries as a result of hunting or the occupation of their habitats. But what, Reverend Sir, has this to do with the Gospel of Bákh?"

Behorj paused before answering. "The first chapter of the Book of Bákh tells how, after Bákh had created the universe, the divinity established life on each planet where conditions favored its survival. Bákh presented a pair of each species to the first human pair and recounted the names of each, saying: "These creatures I have made to share the world with you forever. Have a care that ye take no more of each kind than ye need, lest the breeding stock be depleted to vanishment.' Now, if Bákh intended each species to last for all eternity, how could it permit any to become extinct?"

"Your Reverence, your question lies beyond my competence. I do know that many life forms have disappeared from my own world, where Bákh presumably established them with similar intentions. As for this world, it would not surprise me if the people, being weak and sinful like those of my own Terra, have disobeyed the commands of Bákh."

"Why should Bákh permit such flouting of his desires?"

"I do not know, Your Reverence. Your question has given generations of Terran theologians deep concern, and no fully satisfactory answer has yet transpired. Does the religion of Bákh accept the philosophy of Kurdé the Wise in matters of logic?"

The priest's antennae rose with surprise. "Know you the words of Kurdé?"

"I have read some of his treatises," said Marot. "He can be compared to a philosopher on Terra, one Aristoteles, who flourished centuries ago. Both sages found that a statement of fact cannot be both true and false at once. Does the doctrine of Bákh agree with that?"

"Aye, it doth. But what hath this to do with the question of extinction?"

"This, Your Reverence. If men of science find the remains of a creature, and diligent exploration of the planet fails to find any living specimen thereof, then we must infer that extinction has indeed taken place. In such a case, the doctrines of Bákh must be reinterpreted in the light of this discovery. Following Kurdé, a beast cannot be both extant and extinct at once. Is it not so, sir?"

"Is there not the possibility," said Behorj slowly, "that these petrified bones be not the remains of living creatures, but shapes formed by natural causes—the inherent generative powers of nature? Or perhaps they have been lodged in the rocks by evil spirits that serve the demon Yesht, in order to deceive the faithful?"

Marot shrugged. "When your world has been completely explored and studied and both its living forms and those found fossil have been catalogued, then perhaps the answers to these questions will transpire. Meanwhile, let Your Reverence be assured that we Terrans have no desire to disturb established doctrine."

As the leaden gray of the overcast darkened, distant thunder rumbled. An attendant approached and bowed. "Your Reverence, if we fain would reach the other Terran camp without a soaking, we had best move on."

"All in good time," said Behorj, waving the servitor away.

"Do Terran doctrines of the Creation agree with the Truth of Bákh?"

"If Your Reverence will tell me the tenets of your faith, perhaps I can judge."

"The Book of Bákh reads thus: 'In the beginning, chaos abounded. Wearying of confusion, Bákh gathered all the chaos into a single lump, which it compressed down to a size no greater than the head of a pin. Then it spake a magical word, and the pinhead burst, casting all the matter of the universe far and wide to form stars, planets, and all other heavenly bodies'."

"Why, yes!" said Marot. "It is a belief held in esteem among Terran astronomers. It is the Doctrine of the Great Explosion— in Master Reith's native tongue, the 'Big Bang'."

Lightning flared purple among the lowering clouds, and thunder rolled closer. Behorj said: "I fear we must part, much as I have enjoyed this discourse. I shall report your piety and humility to the High Priestess, good my Doctor."

Reith and the Frenchman rose and bowed as the aged priest got slowly to his feet and, supported by his staff, tottered back to his litter. They silently watched as the procession formed up and started up the slope.

"Whew!" said Reith. "You sure handled that one, Aristide. Doukh! Pack up these chairs and table, and quickly, please."

"I feared the priest would ask me something really dangerous," said Marot, "like creation versus evolution. I have not actually read Kurde; only an article about him in a French journal. So I was—how do you say—buffing?"

"Bluffing."

"Thank you. We can thank Bákh for the coming storm, which sent the priest on his way. At least Bákh, unlike the Judaeo-Christian God, seems to have been a conservationist."

"Shall we load your specimen and start despite the rain?"

"I wish we could, but I do not think that practical. This clay, when wet, becomes extremely slippery; and if we were caught in a downpour along the road, we should probably get lost."

"Hey!" said Reith. "I've got to untie Alicia. She'll be mad enough to scratch my eyes out, but she'll get over it by tomorrow. Here comes the rain!"

A few big drops spattered as Reith peered up the slope to make certain that the Bákhites were out of sight. Reassured, he walked briskly towards the larger tent.

"Holà!" cried Marot. "We have more visitors, down along the river. I think I see Foltz at their head."

Reith whipped around. Foltz and nine mounted Krishnans were galloping along the north bank of the Zora, their sombreros flopping. Behind them fluttered yellow rain capes of some sort of waxed cloth.

"They're out for blood," muttered Reith. "Damn! Alicia was right; we should have killed that skite."

As the rain thickened to a downpour, Doukh and Girej exchanged a few words, sprang to their feet, and ran away downstream.

Marot handed Reith his sword but shook his head. 'Two cannot fight ten. One must be realistic."

"We can take a couple with us," grated Reith. "Don't trust them, whatever they say. They'd rather kill us without resistance, but kill us they will."

Now the riders were upon them. The column swerved to one side and coiled around itself. Reith and Marot stood at the center of a ring of galloping ayas, from whose hooves flew clods of russet mud.

"Halt!" shouted Foltz. The Krishnans pulled up, their animals skidding on the wet clay.

"Do you give up?" said Foltz.

"No," said Reith. The rain fell harder, running off the brims of the riders' hats like ragged veils.

Foltz made a hand signal. Four Krishnans dismounted and unstrapped crossbows from their saddles, cocked them, and placed bolts in the grooves. They pointed their weapons at Reith and Marot.

"Surrender!" barked Foltz.

Reith muttered: "Guard my back!" He hurled himself straight at Foltz, his sword extended before him. He had not gone three strides when a lariat snaked out of the air and looped around Reith's legs, bringing him down prone in the mud. Several Krishnans piled on him, punching and kicking.

"Tie them up!" said Foltz.

Marot yelled angrily as he, too, was roped. Reith's wrists and ankles were lashed together. Foltz dismounted.

"Master Foltz!" cried one of the Krishnans on foot. "Come see this!"

By craning his neck, Reith perceived that the Krishnan who spoke was standing at the larger tent. Foltz hurried over. Presently he emerged leading Alicia, who was rubbing her arms. Foltz dragged the girl to where Reith lay trussed and kicked him in the ribs.

"For this," he said, "I'm going to kill you, Reith." He addressed Marot. "I passed your dig, Aristide. You'll never ruin my career with false inferences from scattered finds!" To his Krishnans he said: "Find me a hammer!"

"À dieu ne plaise!" said Marot in a tearful voice. "He means to break up my specimen!"

Someone handed Foltz a geologist's hammer and the Marsh pick, and he started towards the dig. Alicia walked with him, pulling at his arm and arguing; but Reith could not hear the words over the chatter of the Krishnans and the drumming of the rain.

Some Krishnans followed Foltz; others remained to guard the captives. The rain-muffled sounds of pounding rock came to Reith's ears.

"This time," muttered Marot, "we must kill Foltz when chance permits. I am a man of peace; but to destroy scientific knowledge is worse than to murder a human being."

"Chance is unlikely to permit," muttered Reith. "Lish was right. It's one of her more irritating traits."

"What is?"

"Being right, about killing that bleep."

"I know, my friend. But it is also my fault."

"How? I don't see—"

"If only I had hit him with the pointed end, he would now be a rigid."

"A what? Oh, you mean a stiff."

"Ah, yes. We could have quietly buried him ..."

The bellow of thunder and the howl of the wind muted the sound of the blows on Marot's fossil. The Krishnans moved about, talking and gesturing. A garrulous species, given to oratory, each seemed to try to shout the others down. The arbalesters retreated to the tents to protect their weapons from rain, but the others remained. As lightning sent lavender tentacles snaking through the clouds, the herd of ayas was led away. Misery silenced the captives.

Then a Krishnan gave a shout and pointed. Twisting his neck, Reith glimpsed, beyond the curtain of rain, mounted figures moving. The four crossbowmen boiled out of the tents, hastily recocking their weapons. Amid the gabble, Reith thought he caught the words: "Basht's gang!" He remembered Sainian's warning against the bandit chieftain.

Crossbows snapped, though the rain drowned out the thrum of the quarrels. From one of the newcomers came a scream.

All was confusion. People ran hither and thither, slipping on the mud and sometimes falling down. Swords flashed from scabbards; contradictory orders were shouted. Reith had a glimpse of Foltz, charging towards the camp with his sword out.

A mounted man pounded past, so close that Reith feared being trampled. To his astonishment, as the wind blew back the rider's rain cape, he glimpsed the black-and-white habit of an attendant of the Bákhite priest.

Nearby, two fought savagely on foot until one slipped in the mud and fell. Reith saw the other's blade rise and fall again and again, until the cries of the fallen man died away to a gurgle.

The fighting swirled away downstream. At last a feminine voice said: "Hold still, Fergus, and I'll cut you loose."

It was Alicia, wielding a dirk taken from one of the sprawled bodies. She severed Reith's bonds and then freed Marot.

"Now what?" she asked breathlessly.

Sitting up and rubbing his extremities, Marot said: "They've all gone downstream, dieu merci!—those on their feet, that is. Where are my sacred eyeglasses? Ah, there!" He picked his glasses out of the mud. "Fergus, you and Alicia go find us mounts. Then come to the dig."

"What are you planning?" said Reith, scraping mud off his face.

"You will see. I know what I do." The paleontologist limped off upstream.

"He'll collect his specimen if it kills him, and us. too," growled Reith. "But we've got to catch some ayas. Come along!"

Reith picked up his sword, which lay naked in the mud, and trotted towards the shrubs to which their ayas were tethered. There he found not only the expedition's four animals but also ten others. A Krishnan in a rain cape barred their way with a sword.

"Ohé!" said this one. "Who loosed you?"

"Out of my way!" cried Reith. "I'm collecting my animals."

"Nay, ye shan't! I command these beasts until Master Folch relieves me. Get ye hence and threaten me not! Must I spit you?"

The Krishnan stepped forward in a fencing stance. Reith bored in, lunging, thrusting, and parrying. The swords clanged and whirled, spattering raindrops. Once Reith slipped on the mud but, straining every sinew, recovered before his antagonist could take advantage of the error.

Reith feinted at the Krishnan's midriff. The Krishnan whipped his blade around in the parry in seconde, turning his hand from supine to prone. Reith had been well drilled in the counter to this maneuver, he doubled and drove his sword into the Krishnan's chest.

While Reith's blade was still fixed between his opponent's ribs, the Krishnan made a weak slash at Reith's sword arm. As the blade bit into the leather of his jacket, Reith felt the sting of a cut. He snatched his own blade back.

The Krishnan tottered forward, muttering, and crashed to the ground. Reith wiped the blue-green blood from his blade on the fallen one's garments. Battered and exhausted, he picked his own party's ayas out of the herd and gathered up their reins, saying: "Let's go, Lish!"

Reith and Alicia led their four beasts to the remaining tent. They saddled the animals, working furiously with rainwater running down their faces and little by little washing off the mud. They hastily gathered such gear as had not been scattered, smashed, or stolen. All his and Marot's extra clothing had disappeared.

Reith recovered his razor case, his igniter, and Marot's spare eyeglasses. Not seeing Marot's sword, he detached one from a corpse. He tossed everything he could find on a pair of blankets, tied up the comers of the blankets, and loaded the bundles on one of the ayas. Then he and Alicia led the animals to the dig.

They found Marot sitting on the ground in the rain, whistling a cheerful French tune as he worked, methodically going through a pile of rock fragments ranging in size from tennis balls to fists. Foltz had broken the fossil-bearing slab into about two dozen pieces but had not had time to pulverize the fragments. A few of the stones Marot tossed aside; the rest he laid on the shaihan hide stretched out before him. He looked up, saying:

"One little minute and I shall be finished."

"For God's sake!" said Reith. "What are you doing?"

"Recovering most of my specimen, which Foltz broke up. I have sorted out the pieces with bone in them and discarded the rest."

"God damn it!" Reith exploded. "Stop fooling around and come along! D'you want our throats cut after all?"

"Just three more pieces," said Marot unperturbed. "Ah, there we are!" He gathered up the comers of the hide. "Help me to tie this up and load it on our faithful beast. If I ever have another chance to kill Foltz ..."

A quarter-hour later, they wrestled the bag, now securely tied and weighing about forty kilos, up to the back of the pack aya. It took the combined strength of all three to hoist the awkward bundle into place. Marot and Alicia held it balanced while Reith hunted for more rope to fasten it to the pack saddle. Then the aya shook itself, the bundle got away from them and clattered to the ground, and they had to start over.

When the job was finally done, Reith raked a forearm across a forehead coated with a mud of clay, rain, and sweat. "Ready at last?" he gasped.

"Hokay. A bord!"

They walked their mounts up the slope away from the river. As they neared the upper level, there was a lull in the rain. Turning back, Marot said:

"Look, my friends!"

From this elevation, they could see a place on the nearer river bank, a few hundred meters downstream from Reith's camp. There stood a cluster of people, afoot and mounted, with their yellow hats and rain capes bright against the dark, drab, rainswept ground. The figures were too small to identify; but Reith could make out perhaps five or six standing with bound hands. Surrounding them, afoot and on ayas, stood the attendants of the Reverend Behorj, weapons at the ready. A couple of bodies sprawled nearby.

"That ends Monsieur Foltz's dig," said Marot in tones of grim satisfaction. "Can you see if he is among the living, Fergus?"

"Not from here, especially as he's in Krishnan disguise."

"What on earth happened?" said Alicia as they rode off. "Foltz's gang seemed to be fighting Behorj's escort, but how could that be? It makes no sense."

"It was Behorj's escort," said Reith. "Foltz's gang mistook them for bandits and started a fight; all one big blunder. Now I'm one solid bruise from the manhandling Foltz's people gave me. What about you? I saw Foltz lead you away towards the fossil, and I thought you were trying to persuade him to come back and cut our throats."

"Oh, you idiot! I was furious at you, of course; though I admit Aristide handled the priest better than I could have. But I wasn't mad enough to ask Warren to kill you. After all, you were once my husband; and I'm still fond of you, even if you do get my back up at times."

"Then what were you doing, pulling at his arm and bickering with him?"

"I was trying to save you two, silly, and dissuade Warren from breaking up the fossil. Paleo isn't my line; but as a fellow scientist I can imagine how Aristide felt. But Warren said he was going to smash the fossil, which he said he had a moral right to do; and then come back, kill you two, and bury you.

"He also said he would take me back, whether I wanted him or not. If I'd be a good girl, know my place, and never argue, he might not have to discipline me. I suppose he meant more beatings."

"Anyone who can stop you from arguing, my dear ex, deserves a medal."

"Don't be nasty!"

"Sorry, my dear, I didn't mean that. You saved our hash this afternoon."

"And you saved mine yesterday, and I love you for it. Oh, Fergus, your arm's bleeding!"

Reith glanced at his right hand, down which a trickle of blood had run. "Just a scratch from that poor Krishnan devil I killed. We're in a hurry; it can wait till we get to Kubyab."

"You must let me clean—oh!" cried Alicia. "I have a simply divine idea!"

"What's that?"

"Warren's camp is empty. Let's ride back there so I can scoop up all my notes and things!"

"Good God, woman! We escape death by the skin of our teeth, and you want to dally to recover some sociological scribble! No!"

Alicia's lips tightened, her eyes flashed, and Reith feared she would fly into one of her rages. Instead, with a visible effort, she controlled herself. She guided her aya close to Reith's and caught his hand, looking up with little-girl appeal. Muddy, disheveled, and rain-streaked though she was, he still thought her the prettiest thing on two planets. She pleaded:

"But Fergus! It's only a little detour, and we have hours of daylight yet. And I want those notes more than anything— more than anything but one—in the world. I'll—I'll do anything you ask."

Marot cleared his throat. "My friend, I am willing to take the small additional risk. I know what the little Alicia suffers over the loss of research materials. Permit me to add my plea to hers."

"Suppose we run into armed men?"

"Then we can retreat. What is the English saying, nothing ventured, nothing obtained?"

"Okay; but if it lands us in the soup again, don't blame me." The party changed direction towards Foltz's camp. "It strikes mc we're in the soup already, in one way. Foltz's Krishnans have about cleaned us out of cash."

"When was that?" asked Marot.

"When we packed up, I looked for those bags of coins we had to pay the help, but they were gone. I've got a few karda in my money belt, but that wouldn't feed us for three days in a big city like Jazmurian. They got my good clothes, too. How about you two?"

Alicia said: "I left Warren with nothing in the world but the clothes you see."

"I was not carrying money," said Marot. "Will not that tessara around your neck get us credit on Novorecife?"

Reith held up the green rectangle of jadeoid, on which was inscribed his name and occupation in several Krishnan languages. "It might work in a real city like Mishé or Majbur; but I doubt if these Chilihagho yucks would trust it. They'd know nothing about Terran credit out here in the boonies."

Foltz's camp proved empty. Alicia found her papers; then she wanted to collect her clothes and other possessions. She took so long that Reith said:

"Lish! Foltz's gang may come back any minute. Come along!"

"Just one minute ...I can't find my ..."

"Come on Alicia! Aristide, help me collect her!"

"You must come, my dear," said Marot. "Otherwise we shall have to compel you again."

"Oh, damn you men!" she flared. Returning to the pack aya, she stowed a small bundle as well as her notes. "Pretending to be strong and heroic, and really being scared of your shadows! You've collected your things; why can't I have mine? Well, aren't you going to help me tie this stuff in place?"

"Such a gracious request!" murmured Reith, but he bent to the task. Then he was startled by an unearthly screech of fury from Alicia. She was looking at a table on which lay specimens wrapped in cloth. She darted to this table and snatched up a strip of azure goods, letting the fossil bone fall.

"No wonder I couldn't find my one decent dress!" she cried. "That son of a bitch cut it into strips to wrap his damned fossils! And out of sheer spite! I'll boil him in oil!"

Angrily wiping away a tear, she mounted her aya. During the long ride to Kubyab, she sulkily refused to speak to either companion.