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Moore looked up "You&039;ve got to take your men back there and help the it under his hand "Sole," he said after a pause "We went over there e heard the shooting, and ht But I wouldn&039;t let thee"

"Christ!" Moore blurted out, shaking his head "Do you hate those villagers so htered?"

"They&039;re not ood fighter wouldn&039;t last a ainst those creatures No If and when they reach Caribville the men will have to protect their oo heads, damn it! For God&039;s sake, help the from the , his stare bitter and forceful "What had God to do with this? Everyone dies, Moore, whether in pain or at peace"

The young woary liquid She knelt before Jana, dipped a cloth into the pot, and began to dab rather roughly at the cuts Jana winced and jerked her head back; the worasped the nape of her neck and finished the job

The noise of the rainfall had quieted soutters He got to his feet, feeling the heaviness of his shoulder "Then I&039;un"

Cheyne sharpened his knife in silence In the distance thunder crashed

"I said I&039; back, damn you!"

Cheyne put the stone and the knife back on the table, reached over for the shotgun, broke it open, and withdreo shells from a back pocket He slipped the shells into the breech, closed it, and slung it over to Moore

"Go on," he said quietly He put his hands on the table and leaned forward "But you won&039;t be co back And you won&039;t be able to help any of thes will have smelled you out, and they&039;ll find you They&039;ll bleed you dry; then they&039;ll feast on your corpse and leave your bones for the lizards Go on"

"Lalouene," the old wo "He&039;s a dead man" She stared at Moore, her eyes fatho her angered chattering "Don&039;t," she said to Moore "Please don&039;t go back there!"

Moore said, "I&039;ve got to find Kip I&039;ll co back at the Carib in hope the lowered at hiain; he&039;d have to take his chances alone in the jungle

There was a loud knock on the door Moore tensed, whirled around Cheyne ripped around the knife He looked out theand then threw back the bolt

Two rain-soaked Carib men, both armed with rifles, stood in the doorway Cheyne motioned them in and the man in the lead - tall and bony with black, ferretlike eyes - began to talk in an excited voice, gesturing with his large hands toward the sea He talked on for a full minute before Cheyne spoke, and then theCheyne&039;s face; he could see a coldness creeping across it fro the lips tight, flaring the thick nostrils, settling in the eyes like circles of frozen steel But in the eyes also, very deep, there was a flash of sonized because he had seen it before, in his ownfear Then it passed, and Cheyne found his sternthe men some kind of instructions They listened intently

When he&039;d finished the two o, and then he rebolted the door "OUA!" the old woman shouted wildly "NO!" She shook her head froer woman left Jana to try to calan to cry

"What is it?" Moore asked hiun froone"

"How?"

"They&039;ve taken their boat," Cheyne said, "and left Coquina"

At once Jana was on her feet "That can&039;t be!"

"Those men saw the boat move around the point and disappear into the northwest"

Moore shook his head, his shoulder burning, his ht

"It can&039;t be!" Jana said forcefully She looked over at Moore, her gaze helpless, almost childlike

Moore slowly let hi him "We helped them," he said wearily "God save us, we helped theave the, while ere sleeping, they were piecing that terrible ether - and we never knew God we never knew"

"Now listen tosuddenly "Even if they have worked on the diesels and replaced enough of the battery cells, they can&039;t be getting but a fraction of their forines! I don&039;t care what sort of equipment they had, they couldn&039;t have repaired all of the systeish, they&039;ll be slowed to a crawl and forced to keep to the surface!"

"You said the systems were duplicated," Moore reminded her "One operated by machinery One by hand"

"No!" She looked frootten the skeleton , but the veins and nerves are still dead!"

"Can you be certain of that? What about their torpedoes, their deck gun? And that damned boat itself, with its blade of a bow, could batter a hole through a ti to piece together what he was saying "No What you&039;re thinking is madness This isn&039;t 1942 this isn&039;t World War II"

"To the northwest theylanes between here and there Lanes that they o They&039;re bound to have known the charts and how to reach the lanes from here"

"God!" Jana whispered "What&039;s kept them alive after s have they beco was louder; the Carib woh a doorway, and returned holding a black-haired infant cradled in her arroped for a breast, and she unbuttoned her blouse to let it suck from a nipple She kept her eyes fixed on Cheyne&039;s back, as he stood at the

"You can go back to your village now," Cheyne said after a long silence "It&039;s safe"

"They may still need your help," Moore told him

"No I have no ti woled to rise, her ar with the effort, and Cheyne crossed the rooently and stroked her hair while shethe child close to her body He looked into Moore&039;s face "I say go back to your own kind"

Moore rose and took a single step toward him There was a fierceness in Cheyne&039;s face thatduplicate of that hand-hewn tribal ht of a nearby la that hadto do?"

"It&039;s no concern of yours Now leave, both of you!"

Tears had begun to strea the old wo "What are you going to do?"

Cheyne continued to stroke the woain at the white un barrels

"I&039; to destroy it"