The next morning they followed Santees plan. The pilot, handicapped by a stiff shoulder, went in the sled along with Cully who was able to take the controls. Their supplies pared to the minimum were shared between the sled and two packs for Dard and Santee.
When the sled took off, due south, it cruised just above tree-top level. It would fly at lowest speed on that same course until noon when its crew would camp, waiting for the two on foot to join them.
Dard shouldered his pack, setting it into place with a wriggle, and picked up their compass. Santee followed with pack and rifle, and they went forward at a ground-eating pace Dard had learned in the woods of Terra, as the sled vanished over the rise.
For the most part they found the going through this rolling country easy. There were no wooded stretches to form impassable barriers, and they soon struck an old road running in the right direction to provide footing good enough to allow a faster pace. Insects spun out of the tall grass to blunder past them and hoppers spied them constantly.
Shortly before noon the road made a sharp curve west toward the distant sea, and the Terrans had to strike away across fields again. They had the good luck to stumble on a farm where not only one but two of the golden apple trees bent under the weight of ripe fruit. Pushing through the mob of semidrunk birds, insects, and hoppers, including a new and larger variety of the latter, they secured fruit which was not only food but drink, filling an improvised bag for the sake of the sled riders.
Santee bit into the fragrant pulp with a sigh of pleasure.
Dyuh knowI wonder a lot-where did all the people go? They had a bad warsure. But there must have been some survivors. Everybody couldnt have been killed!
What if they used gas, or a germ-certain kinds of infective radiation? questioned Dard. There are no traces of any survivors, in the city ruins, around farms.
It looks to me jus as if"-the big rifleman licked his fingers carefully-"they all packed up and got out together, the way we left the Cleft.
When they left the farm the character of the country began to change. Here the soil was spotted with patches of sandy gravel which grew larger. The clumps of trees dwindled to thickets of wiry thorn bushes, and there were outcroppings of the same shiny black rock which had nursed the killing vines by the river. Santee shot a long survey about as they halted on the top of a steep hill.
Thiss kinda like a desert. Glad we brought them apples-we might not hit water here.
It was hot, hotter than it had seemed back when they were in the blue-green fields, for this sun-baked red-brown earth and blue sand reflected the heat. Dards skin, chafed by the pack straps, smarted when moisture trickled down between his shoulder blades. He licked his lips and tasted salt. Santees comment concerning lack of water had aroused his thirst.
Below them was a gorge. Dard blinked and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. No, that was no trick of shimmering heat-there was a bright gleaming line straight across the floor of the valley. He called it to Santees attention and the other focused the field glasses on it.
A rail! But why only one?
We can get down over there, Dard pointed. Lets see what it is.
They made the hard climb down to verify the fact that a single metal rail did reach from one tunnel hole in the gorge wall to another tunnel directly across. Unable to discover anything else, they pulled themselves up the opposite cliff to continue the southward march.
It was midafternoon when they saw, rising into a cloudless sky, the smoke signal of the sled. And their strides became a trot until they panted up the side of a small mesa- plateau to the camp.
How long, Santee wanted to know later as they sucked appreciatively on golden apples, is this trip gonna last?
Another full days journey for you two, and maybe half the next. At this speed we cant expect to cut it any shorter, Kimber replied. Jorges been working on the engine again. But there isnt much he can do without other tools.
The big man grinned. Well, these here plasta-boots of ourn are holdin up pretty well. We can keep sloggin a while longer. And theres nothin to be afraid of.
Dont be too sure of that, cautioned the pilot. Keep your eyes open, you two. There may have been other booby traps scattered around. Since we were shot down, I dont trust even a clear sky!
The second days routine followed the first. Except, in the arid desert land, it was tougher going and they did not make time.
Dards head went up and his nostrils expanded as he started to pick his way down a series of ledges into a sandy- floored ravine. There was a musky, highly repellent stench arising from below. And he had sniffed something very much like it before! The putrescent remains of the duocorn! Below an organic thing was very dead! Santee worked along to join him.
Whatre you stoppin for?
Smell that?
Santees bearded face wrinkled. Yah, a big stink! Somthin dead!
Dard studied the ground before them carefully. If they tried to double back on their trail through this up and down country they were going to lose hours of time, After all, what had made that kill below-if it were a kill-might have been gone for days. He decided to leave it up to Santee.
Shall we go down?
Well lose a lotta time back trailin from here. Id say keep on.
But they continued the descent cautiously and when Dard disturbed a small stone, which dropped noisily over the edge, he stiffened for several listening seconds. There was no sound from below-nothing but that terrible stomach-disturbing odor.
Santee unslung the rifle, and Dards hand went to his own belt. That morning Cully had given him the ray gun, suggesting that it could be of more use to the foot travelers. Now, as his hand closed around the butt, Dard was very glad that he held it. There was something about this ill-omened place-something in the very silence which brooded there-that hinted of danger.
A screen of stubby thorn bushes masked the far end of the narrow ravine, hinting at the presence of moisture, although the prickly leaves had a grayish, unhealthy cast.
The two worked their way through these as carefully and noiselessly as possible and found a seeping spring. Minerals salted the lip of the water-filled depression, and a greenish powder was dry along the banks of the rivulet which trickled on down the valley.
Chemical fumes from the water scented the air, but not heavy enough to cover the other sickish effluvium.
They should have beaten their way through the brush to the other side of the valley and climbed out of that tainted hole. But no broken ledges hung over there to furnish climbing aids, and they followed the stream along in the search for an easier path.
The contaminated water spilled out into a shallow stinking pool with a broad rim of the poisonous green.
Grouped around the far perimeter of the pool, half buried in the sand, were such things as nightmares are made of! Their dingy yellowish-green skins were scaled with the stigmata of the reptile. But the creatures drowsing in the sun were not even as wholesome as the snakes most humans shrink from with age-old inbred horror. These were true monsters-evil. Gorged, they had fallen in a stupor among the grisly fragments of their feasting, and from those fragments and the smeared sand came a stench foul enough to suggest that this was a long used lair.
Dard estimated that they were from seven to ten feet long. The hind legs, ending in huge webbed feet, mere stems of bone laced with powerful driving muscles. Short, horribly stained forearms had terrible travesties of human hands which curved over their protruding bellies, each finger a ten-inch claw. But their heads were the worst, too small for the bodies, flat of skull, they were mounted on unusually long and slender necks, giving the impression of a cobra on the shoulders of a lizard.