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MacAran was out of his sleeping bag and out of the tent, half dressed, Ewen less than half a stepbehind him, and all the others crowding after, sleepy, bewildered, frightened. He ran up the slope towardthe sound, hearing Camilla cry out for help.

She had set her equipment in a clearing near the summit, but now it was knocked over; nearby Marco Zabal lay on the ground, writhing and moaning incoherently. He was swollen and his face had ahideous congested look; Camilla was brushing frantically with her gloved

34

hands. Ewen dropped by the writhing man, with a quick demand to Camilla:

"Quick--what happened!"

"Thing--like insects," she said, shaking as she held out her hands. On the gloved palm lay a small crushed thing, less than two inches long, with a curved tail like a scorpion and a wicked fang at the front; it was bright orange and green in color. "He stepped on that mound there, and I heard him scream, and then he felt down--"

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Ewen had his medical kit out, and was quickly moving his hands over Zabal's heart. He gave quickdirections to Heather, who had dropped beside him, to curt away the man's clothes; the wounded man'sface was congested and blackening, and his arm swollen immensely. Zabal was unconscious now,moaning deliriously.

A powerful nerve poison, Ewen thought; his heart is slowing down and his breathing depressed. Allhe could do now was to give the man a powerful stimulant and stand by in case he needed artificialrespiration. He didn't even dare give him anything to ease the agony--almost all narcotics wererespiratory depressants. He waited, hardly breathing himself, his stethoscope on Zabal's chest, while theman's faltering heart began to beat a little more regularly; he raised his head to look briefly at the mound,to ask Camilla if she had been bitten--she hadn't, although two of the hideous insects had begun to crawlup her arm--and to demand that everybody stay a good long distance from the mound, or anthill, orwhatever it was.
 
Just dumb luck we didn't camp on top of it in the dark! MacAran and Camillamight have stumbled right into it-or maybe they're dormant in snow!

Time dragged. Zabal began to breathe again more regularly and to moan a little but he did notrecover consciousness The great red sun, dripping fog, slowly lifted itself up over the foothills surroundingthem.

Ewen sent Heather back to the tent for the rest of his medical equipment; Judy and MacLeod beganto fix some breakfast. Camilla stoically calculated the few astronomical readings she had been able totake before the attack of the scorpion-ants--MacLeod, after examining the dead one, had temporarilychristened them that. MacAran came and stood beside the unconscious man and the young doctor whoknelt beside him.

"Will he live?"

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"I don't know. Probably. I never saw anything like it since I treated my one and only case of rattlesnake bite. But one thing's certain--he won't be going anywhere today, probably not tomorrow either."

MacAran asked, "Shouldn't we carry him down to the tent? Could there be more of those things

crawling around?"

"I'd rather not move him now. Maybe in a couple of hours."

MacAran stood, looking down in dismay, at the unconscious man. They shouldn't delay--and yet,their party had been rigidly calculated for size and there was no one to spare to send back to the ship forhelp. Finally he said, "We've got to go on. Suppose we move Marco back to the tent, when it's safe, andyou stay to look after him. The others can do their exploration work here as well as anywhere, check outsoil, plant, animal samples. But I have to survey what I can from the peak, and Lieutenant Del Rey has totake her astronomical sightings from as high up as possible. We'll go on ahead, as far as we can. If the

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peak turns out to be unclimbable we won't try, just take what readings we can and come back."

"Wouldn't it be better to wait and see whether we can go on with you? We don't know what kind of

dangers there are in the forests here."

"It's a matter of time," Camilla said tautly. "The sooner we know where we are, the sooner we have

a chance--" she didn't finish.

MacAran said, 'We don't know. The dangers might even be less for a very small party, even for a

single person. It's even odds, either way. I think we're going to have to do it that way."

They arranged it like that, and since in two hours Zabal had shown no signs of recoveringconsciousness, MacAran and the other two men carried him, on an improvised stretcher, down to thetent. There was some protest about the splitting of the party, but no one seriously disputed it, and MacAran realized that he had already become their leader whose word was law. By the time the red sunstood straight overhead they had divided the packs and were ready to go, with only the small emergencyshelter-tent, food for a few days, and Camilla's instruments.

They stood in the shelter tent, looking down at the

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semi-conscious Zabal. He had begun to stir and moan but showed no other signs of returning consciousness. MacAran felt desperately uneasy about him, but all he could do was leave him in Ewen's hands. After all, the important business here was the preliminary estimate of this planet--and Camilla's observations as to where in the Galaxy they were!

Something was nagging at his mind. Had he forgotten anything? Suddenly Heather Stuart pulled offher uniform coat and drew off the fut-knit jacket she was wearing under it. "Camilla, it's warmer thanyours," she said in a low voice, "please wear it. It snows so here. And you're going to be out with onlythe small shelter!"

Camilla laughed, shaking her head. "It's going to be cold here too."

"But--" Heather's face was taut and drawn. She bit her lip and pleaded, "Please, Camilla. Call me a

silly fool, if you like. Say I'm having a premonition, but
please
 
take it!"

"You too?" MacLeod asked dryly. "Better take it, Lieutenant. I thought I was the only one having freaked-out second sight. I've never taken ESP very seriously, but who knows, on a strange planet it just might turn out to be a survival quality. Anyhow, what can you lose to take a few extra warm clothes?"

MacAran realized that the nagging at his mind
 
had
 
been somehow concerned with weather. He said, "Take it, Camilla, if it's extra warm. I'll take Zabal's mountain parka, too, it's heavier than mine, and leavemine for him. And some extra sweaters if you have them. Don't deprive yourselves, but it's true that if itsnows you will have more shelter than we do, and it sometimes gets pretty cold on the heights." He waslooking at Heather and MacLeod curiously; as a general rule he had no faith in what he had heard about ESP, but if two people in the party both felt it, and he too had some inkling of it well, maybe it was just a

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matter of unconscious sensory clues, something they couldn't add up consciously. Any way, you didn't need ESP to predict bad weather on the mountain heights of a strange planet with a freakishly bad climates! "Take all the clothes anyone can spare, and an extra blanket--we have extras," he ordered, "and then let's get going."

While Heather and Judy were packing, he made time for

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a word alone with Ewen. "Wait here for at least eight days for us," he said, "and we'll signal every night at sunset if we can. If there's no word or signal by that time, get back to the ship. 1f we make it back, no sense disturbing everyone else with this--but if something happens to us, you're in charge."

Ewen felt reluctant to see him go. "What shall I do if Zabal dies?"

"Bury him," MacAran said harshly, "what else?" He turned away and motioned to Camilla. "Let's go,

Lieutenant."

They strode away from the clearing without looking back, MacAran setting a steady pace, not too

fast, not too slow.

As they climbed higher the land changed, the ground under foot becoming less overgrown, withmore bare rocks and sparser trees. The slope of the foothills was not acute, but as they neared the crestof the slope where they had camped, MacAran called a halt to rest and swallow a mouthful of rations. From where they stood they could see the small orange square of the shelter tent, only a flyspeck at thisheight, through the heavy trees.

"How far have we come, MacAran?" the woman asked, putting back the fur-lined hood of her

jacket.

"I've no way of knowing. Five, six miles perhaps; about two thousand feet of altitude. Headache?"

"Only a little," the girl lied.

"That's the change in air pressure; you'll get used to it presently," he said. "Good thing we have a

fairly gradual rise in land."

"It's hard to realize that's really where we slept last night--so far down," she said a little shakily.

"Over this ridge it will be out of sight. If you want to chicken out, this is your last chance. You could

make it down in an hour, maybe two."

She shrugged. "Don't tempt me;"

"Are you frightened?"

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"Of course. I'm not a fool. But I won't panic, if that's what you mean."

MacAran rose to his feet, swallowing the last of his ration. "Let's go, then. Watch your step--here

are rocks above us."

But to his surprise she was sure-footed on the piled rocks near the peak, and he did not need to

help her,

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or hunt for an easier pass. From the top of the hill they could see a long panorama beneath them, behind them; the valley where they had camped, with its long plain, the further valley where the starship lay--although even with his strong binoculars MacAran could only make out a tiny dark streak that
 
might
 
be the ship. Easier to see was the ragged clearing where they had cut trees for shelters. Passing the glasses to Camilla, he said, "Man's fast mark on a new world."

"And last, I hope," she said. He wanted to ask her, put it up to her straight,
 
could
 
the ship be repaired? But that wasn't the time for thinking about that. He said, "There are streams among the rocks, and Judy tested the water days ago. We can probably find all the water we need to refill our canteens, so don't ration yourself too much."

"My throat feels terribly dry. Is it just the altitude?"

"Probably. On Earth we couldn't come much higher than this without oxygen, but this planet has a higher oxygen content." MacAran took one last look at the orange tent below them; stowed the glasses and slung them over his shoulder. "Well, the next peak will be higher. Let's get on, then." She was looking at some small orange flowers that grew in the crannies of the rock. "Better not touch them. Who knows what might bite, here?"

She turned around, a small orange flower in her fingers. "Too late now;" she said with wry grin. "If I'm going to drop dead when I pick a flower, better find it out now than later. I'm not so sure I want togo on living if it's a planet where I can't
 
touch
 
anything." She added, more seriously, "We've got to takesome risks, Rafe--and even then, something we never thought of might kill us. Seems to ma that all wecan do is take the obvious precautions--and then take our chances."

It was the first time since the crash that she had called him by his first name, and unwillingly hesoftened. He said, "You're right of course; short of going around in space suits we haven't any realprotection, so there's no point in being paranoid. If we were a First Landing Team we'd know what risksnot to take, but as it is I guess all we can do is take our chances:" It was growing hot, and he stripped offhis outer layer of clothing. "I wonder how much stock to put in Heather's premonitions of bad weather?"

They started down the other side of the ridge.

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Halfway down the slope, after two or three hours of searching for a path, they discovered a small crystalspring gushing from a split rock, and refilled their canteens; the water tasted sweet and pure, and at MacAran's suggestion they followed the stream down; it would certainly take the shortest way.

At dusk heavy clouds began to scud across the lowering sun. They were in a valley, with no chance tosignal the ship or the other camp of their party. While they were setting up the tiny shelter-tent, and MacAran was making fire to heat their rations, a thin fine rain began falling; swearing, he moved the smallfire under the flap of the tent, trying to shield it a little from the rain. He managed to get water heated, butnot hot, before the gusting sleet put it out again, and he gave up and dumped the dried rations into thebarely warm water. "Here. Not tasty but edible--and nourishing, I hope."

Camilla made a face when she tasted it, but to his relief said nothing. The sleet whipped around themand they crawled inside and drew the flap tight. Inside there was barely room enough for one of them tolie at full length while the other sat up--the emergency tents were really only meant for one. MacAranstarted to make some flippant remark about nice cozy quarters, looked at her drawn face and didn't. Heonly said, as he wriggled out of his storm parka and pack, and started unrolling his sleeping bag, "I hopeyou don't suffer from claustrophobia:"