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‘We’ll do ‘er that way, Cap’n,’ Grock replied Then he turned and went back across the ht want to think about Cap’n Skell,’ Rabbit said ‘Longbow’s archers are coh the mountains to join up with us here, and once they’re in place, the ene on the wall, because they’ll be too busy dying’

‘He’s got a point there, Skell,’ Padan agreed ‘About the best we can do with spears and swords is bring things to a standstill It’ll take the archers to turn the tide’ He looked at Longbow ‘Can you give us soet here?’

Longbow scratched his cheek ‘Probably a couple of weeks,’ he speculated ‘They’re co’

‘If cousin Sorgan and Co to, they’re probably anchored down at the mouth of that little creek already,’ Skell said, ‘so as soon as Grock gets down there and tells the up I’d say that they’ll be here inside two days, and then they can get started on our s are still up in the air, but if everybody’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing, we’ll be in fair shape in two or three ed e to the west of the basin as they walked back toward the still-spouting geyser Mountain sunsets were sort of pretty, maybe, but as far as Skell was concerned they were nosea

They built a fire soe pot of beans The Oo stood up to put more wood on the fire, but he instinctively ducked as a bat ca that!’ he coht attracts bugs, and the bats are hungry’

Longbow’s head ca wrong?’ Rabbit asked, rising to his feet

‘I’ that isn’t quite right’ He looked around, his face suddenly bleak ‘I think it hbors’ He drew an arrow out of the quiver slanting up over his shoulder, set the arrow in place, drew his bow and released it The arroent straight and true, and a dead bat fell to the ground soboent over and picked the dead bat up by its wingtips and held it up to take a closer look ‘You’d better cori up

‘Look for yourself’ Longbow held out the dead bat

Red-Beard flinched back ‘I think I’d better go see if I can find the archers,’ he said tersely

‘What’s the trouble?’ Skell de to show Skell the dead bat

Skell instinctively jerked back fros of a bat, the usual fur-covered body and clawed feet, but its head was the head of a bee - or possibly an ant - with protrudingeyes and odd-looking feelers growing out of the top of its head