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But before he could finish the sentence, a wild clamor of bells broke out from the village below. Valdirstiffened; the two telepaths darted looks at one another. From further away another bell and anothersounded the alarm; not now in the known pattern to signal a fire, but a wild, clamorous cry of warning. The men in the camp, the men trooping back from the dead fire, dropped their tools and axes and lookedup, startled. There was a rising murmur of apprehension, of dread.

Valdir swore, furiously. “We might have known—”

Kennard looked at him in astonishment. “What is it, Father?”

Valdir’s mouth twisted bitterly. “A trick—the fire was obviously set to draw us away from the villages,so that the bandits could attack in peace—and find no one to meet them but women and old men andlittle children!”

The fire camp, until now so orderly, was suddenly a scene of milling confusion as men formed intogroups, stirred around restlessly, broke away for their horses, and within a few minutes the crowded fieldwas almost empty, men vanishing silently in all directions. Valdir watched, tight-mouthed.

“The raiders may get a surprise,” he said, at last. “They’ll never guess we could have conquered such a fire so quickly Just the same”—he looked grim and angry—“I had no chance— Tell me, Larry, how would your people handle such an attack?”

“I suppose we’d all get together and fight it,” Larry said, and Valdir’s mouth moved in a brief, mirthless

laugh.

“Right. But they won’t understand that it’s as urgent as a fire—” he broke off, with a violent gesture.

“Zandru seize them all! Kennard, where did they take our horses?”

Fifteen minutes later they were riding away from the village, Valdir still silent and grim, Kennard and

Larry not daring to break in on his anger. Larry was still struggling with the sense of wonder. The powers

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these Darkovans had —and the slipshod, unsystematic way they used them!

He was beginning to formulate a theory as to why Valdir had invited him to his estate. Valdir evidentlyhad some inkling of the value of a quality which seemed alien to the Darkovan way of life, something the Terrans had. Larry hardly knew how to describe it. It was the thing Kennard had jeered at when he said, “You Terrans can’t handle your personal problems by yourselves—you have to call in everyone else.” Perhaps it could be called a community spirit, or the ability to work together in groups. They didn’t knowhow to organize; even in firefighting there had been no single leader but each group had workedseparately. Even now, there was no way they could get together against the common danger of thebandits. And Valdir, who could see the history of failure behind these scattered efforts, hoped to changethis old pattern. But they hadn’t given him a chance.

The other Darkovans who had originally been a part of the three-day hunt—how long ago thatseemed!—rode several paces behind, not wanting to break in on their master’s preoccupation. To Larry, Valdir’s feelings seemed as clear as if he, himself had felt them. Kennard, too, riding silently at Larry’s,side, was mulling it over in his mind, the disparity behind the old codes and his father’s attempt to changethings. To Larry it seemed almost as if Kennard spoke his thoughts aloud—his father could do no wrong,and yet how had he come to these conclusions?

Once away from the site of the fire, there was no sign of clouds or of the brief rain; only the high-hangingcloud of smoke and soot over the forest told where the fire had been. Even that had vanished behind thehills by the time they paused, where the road forked at the foot of a thickly wooded slope, to breathe thehorses and to eat cold food from their saddlebags.

Kennard said idly, “It’s going to be good to be home.”

Larry nodded. He still ached from the unaccustomed labor in the fire-lines, and his hands were raw andblistered.

“Mine too,” Kennard said, displaying his hands ruefully. “Though you’d think they were hardened enough by now. The arms-master in the city guard wouldn’t have much sympathy for me. He’d say I’d shirked sword-practice too many times.”

Larry reached in his saddle-bag for the small first-aid kit he had brought along. It had the emblem of the Medical HQ on it, and Kennard looked at it curiously as Larry opened it and glanced at the small bottlesand tubes.

“Here. Try some of this on your blisters,” he suggested diffidently, sprinkling the powder on his own.

Kennard followed suit, smelling the antiseptic curiously.

“May I see it?” Kennard examined the small bottles and tubes with interested curiosity. “Your people

make the damndest things!”

“Some of yours are just as strange,” Larry retorted. “The idea of telepathy still seems weird to me. And

teleportation!”

Kennard shrugged. “I suppose so, though of course to me it’s very simple.” He looked at his father; Valdir, looking somewhat less unapproachable now, turned, nodded to his son, fished in the pocket ofhis jerkin and tossed something to Kennard. Kennard caught the small object—it was shrouded in asmall chamois bag and wrapped in silk—and from it, drew a glimmering blue jewel.

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“Of course I’m not as good at it all as my father, but still —here, take a look in this.”

Gingerly, Larry touched the blue jewel. It felt faintly warm. He hesitated, remembering how Valdir hadprobed the mind of the dying Ranger.

“It’s all right,” Kennard said gently, reassuringly. “You don’t think I’d hurt you, do you?”

Abashed at his own fear, Larry looked into the blue jewel. Within the depths, faint colors seemed tomove and writhe; suddenly, as he looked up at Kennard, some barrier seemed to drop. The Darkovanboy seemed nearer, and easier to understand. Larry caught, in one quick flash of understanding, a suddenblaze of Kennard’s thoughts, as if the essence of his friend’s personality was made clear to him: Kennard’s intense pride of family, his tremendous sense of responsibility for his work, the fears withwhich he sometimes struggled, the warmth Kennard felt for his father and his young foster-sister,even—to Larry’s shy embarrassment—the warm friendliness Kennard felt for Larry himself, and theemotion verging on awe with which he regarded Larry’s travels in space and his Terran origin…

All this in a brief flash, as the blueness of the jewel blazed; then it faded, the barrier dropped in placeagain, and Kennard was smiling at him, somewhat tentatively. It occurred to Larry that Kennard nowknew as much about him as he knew about Kennard. He didn’t mind—but it took some getting used to!

At least, having had a sample of it, he couldn’t doubt the existence of telepathy!

Kennard shrouded the jewel again. Larry, realizing that the medical kit was still in his other hand, thrust itquickly into his pocket.

He had no way of knowing that the moment of rapport between himself and Kennard was to save boththeir lives

VII

«^»

THEY HAD mounted again, and had ridden for an hour, when they came to a narrow canyon betweentwo forested hills. Between the slopes and the dark trees the place lay in shadow, for the sun wasdeclining; Valdir, riding ahead, slowed his horse to a walk and waited for the others to come up with him.

Kennard’s eyes rested questioningly on his father, and Larry, riding beside him, could follow his thoughtsin that way that was still so strange to him:
 
I don’t like this place. Every clump of brushwood couldhave a dozen bandits behind it. It’s a perfect set-up for an ambush… It would be my first fight.

The first time I’ve been this close to real danger, not just lolling around the city streets chasinghome troublemakers. I wonder if Father knows that I’m afraid
 
.

Larry’s skin prickled, in a strange mixture of excitement and fear. Within the last three days his peacefullife had suddenly plunged into a maelstrom of violence and danger. It was new to him, but, somehow, notunpleasant.

They were halfway down the little valley when Larry heard, through the hoofbeats, a curious sound fromdeep within the bushes. He stiffened in the saddle; Valdir, alert, saw the move and reined in, lookingwarily around. Then, from the shelter of the trees came a harsh and raucous cry—and then mounted menwere all sweeping down on them.

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Valdir cried out a warning. Larry, in that first instant of petrified shock, saw the riders, tall men in longfurred cloaks, long-haired and bearded, mounted on huge rangy horses of a strange breed, racing downon them at incredible speed. There was no time to flee, no time to think. Suddenly he was in the middleof the attackers, saw the Darkovans had drawn their swords; Kennard, his face very white, had hisdagger in his hand and was fighting to control his horse with the other.

He had a bare moment to see all this—and a strange, uprushing sense of panic that he, of all his party,was unarmed and knew nothing of fighting—before it all melted into a mad confusion of horses pushingagainst horses, cries in a strange tongue, the dull clash of steel on steel.

Larry’s horse reared upright and plunged forward. He gripped wildly at the reins, felt them slide throughhis fingers, burning his blistered hands with a brief stab of pain. Then he felt himself losing his balance andslid to the ground, legs crumpling beneath him. Half stunned, he had just sense enough to roll frombeneath the pawing hooves of his frantic horse. Someone tripped over his prostrate body, stumbled, fellforward on the grass; roused up with a hoarse cry of rage, and a moment later came at Larry with aknife. Larry rolled over on his back, balling up, kicking with one booted foot at the descending knife. With a split-second sense of weird unreality—
 
This isn’t real, it can’t be
!—he saw the knife spin awayin a high arc and fall ten feet away. The man, knocked off balance, reeled and staggered back; recoveredhimself and dived at Larry, getting hold of him with both hands. Larry drew his elbows up, pushed withall his might and freed himself momentarily. He struggled up to his knees, but his attacker was on himagain and the man’s face—rough, bearded, with evil yellow eyes—came close and menacing. His breathstank hot in Larry’s face; his hands sought for Larry’s throat. Larry, frightened and yet suddenlycool-headed, found himself thinking,
 
He hasn’t got a knife, and he’s fat and out of condition
 
.

He went limp, relaxing and falling backward, dragging the man with him, before his attacker couldrecover his balance, Larry drew up his feet to his chest in an almost convulsive movement: thrust out withall his strength. The kick landed in the man’s stomach. The bandit gave a yell of agony and crumpled,howling, his hands gripping his belly in oblivious anguish.

Larry pulled himself up to his knees again, braced himself, and put the whole weight of his body into onepunch, which struck the man fairly in the nose.

The man dropped, out cold, and lay still.

And as Larry straightened, recovering his balance, finding a moment to feel fright again, something struckhim hard on the back of the head.

The clashing of swords and knives became a thunder, an explosion—then slid into a deathly, unrealsilence. He felt himself falling. But he never felt himself strike the ground.

It was dark. He was sore and cramped; his whole body ached, and there was a throbbing, jolting pain inhis head. He tried to move, made a hoarse sound, and opened his eyes.

He could see nothing. He knew a split-second of panic; then he began to see, dimly, through the coarseweave of cloth over his face. He tried to move his hands and felt that they were bound with cords at hisside. The jolting pain went on. It felt like hoofbeats. It was hoofbeats. He was lying on his stomach, bentin the middle, and against his hands was the hairy warmth of a horse’s body.

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He realized, fuzzily, that he was blindfolded and flung doubled over the saddle of a horse. With therealization, he panicked and, struggled to move his arms, and then felt a sharp steel point, prickingthrough his clothes, against his ribs.

“Lie still,” said a harsh voice, in so barbarous a dialect that Larry could barely understand the words. “I know that orders are not to kill you, but you’d be none the worse for a little bloodletting—and much easier to carry! Lie still!”

Larry subsided, his head spinning. Where was he? What had happened? Where were Valdir, Kennard? Memory of the fight came rushing back. They had been outnumbered. Had the others, too, been takenprisoner? How long had he been unconscious? Where were they taking him? Cold fear gripped the boy;he was in the hands of Darkovan bandits, and he was alone and far from his own people, on a strangeworld whose people were hostile to Terra.