see him, as he saw them. When they vanished behinda snow-hill, he rose and hastened forward, to take cover again. Hekept at this all day; by alternately resting and running, be foundhimself gaining on them, and toward evening, he was withinrifle-range. The man in the lead was Vahr Farg's son; even at thatdistance he recognized him easily. The others were Southrons, ofcourse; they wore quilted garments of cloth, and quilted hoods. Theman next to Vahr, in blue, carried a rifle, as Vahr did. The man inyellow had only an ice-staff, and the man in green, at the rear, hadthe Crown on his pack, still in the bearskin bundle.
He waited, at the end of the day, until he saw the light of theirfire. Then he and Brave circled widely around their camp, and stoppedbehind a snow-ridge, on the other side of an open and level stretch amile wide. He dug the sleeping-hole on the crest of the ridge, makingit larger than usual, and piled up a snow breastwork in front of it,with an embrasure through which he could look or fire without beingseen.
Before daybreak, he was awake and had his pack made, and when he sawthe smoke of the thieves' campfire, he was lying behind hisbreastwork, the rifle resting on its folded cover, muzzle toward thesmoke. He lay for a long time, watching, before he saw the file oftiny dots emerge into the open.
They came forward steadily, in the same order as on the day before,Vahr in the lead and the man with the Crown in the rear. The thievessuspected nothing; they grew larger and larger as they approached,until they were at the range for which he had set his sights. Hecuddled the butt of the rifle against his cheek. As the man whocarried the Crown walked under the blade of the front sight, hesqueezed the trigger.
The rifle belched pink flame and roared and pounded his shoulder. Asthe muzzle was still rising, he flipped open the breech, and threw outthe empty. He inserted a fresh round.
There were only three of them, now. The man with the bearskin bundlewas down and motionless. Vahr Farg's son had gotten his rifle unslungand uncovered. The Southron with the other rifle was slower; he wasonly getting off the cover as Vahr, who must have seen the flash,fired hastily. Too hastily; the bullet kicked up snow twenty feet tothe left. The third man had drawn his negatron pistol and was tryingto use it; thin hairlines of brilliance were jetting out from hishand, stopping far short of their mark.
Raud closed his sights on the man with the autoloading rifle; as hedid, the man with the negatron pistol, realizing the limitations ofhis weapon, was sweeping it back and forth, aiming at the snow fiftyyards in front of him. Raud couldn't see the effect of his secondshot--between him and his target, blueish light blazed and twinkled,and dense clouds of steam rose--but he felt sure that he had missed.He reloaded, and watched for movements on the edge of the risingsteam.
It cleared, slowly; when it did, there was nothing behind it. Even thebody of the dead man was gone. He blinked, bewildered. He'd pickedthat place carefully; there had been no gully or ravine within runningdistance. Then he grunted. There hadn't been--but there was now. Thenegatron pistol again. The thieves were hidden in a pit they hadblasted, and they had dragged the body in with them.
He crawled back to reassure Brave, who was guarding the pack, and toshift the pack back for some distance. Then he returned to hisembrasure in the snow-fort and resumed his watch. For a long time,nothing happened, and then a head came briefly peeping up out of thepit. A head under a green hood. Raud chuckled mirthlessly into hisbeard. If he'd been doing that, he'd have traded hoods with the deadman before shoving up his body to draw fire. This kept up, atintervals, for about an hour. He was wondering if they would stay inthe pit until dark.
Then Vahr Farg's son leaped out of the pit and began running acrossthe snow. He had his pack, and his rifle; he ran, zig-zag, almostdirectly toward where Raud was lying. Raud laughed, this time in realamusement. The Southrons had chased Vahr out, as a buck will chase hisdoes in front of him when he thinks there is danger in front. If Vahrwasn't shot, it would be safe for them to come out. If he was, itwould be no loss, and the price of the Crown would only have to bedivided in two, rather than three, shares. Vahr came to within twohundred yards of Raud's unseen rifle, and then dropped his pack andflung himself down behind it, covering the ridge with his rifle.
Minutes passed, and then the Southron in yellow came out and ranforward. He had the bearskin bundle on his pack; he ran to where Vahrlay, added his pack to Vahr's, and lay down behind it. Raud chewed hisunderlip in vexation. This wasn't the way he wanted it; that fellowhad a negatron pistol, and he was close enough to use it effectively.And he was sheltered behind the Crown; Raud was afraid to shoot. Hedidn't miss what he shot at--often. But no man alive could say that henever missed.
The other Southron, the one in blue with the autoloading rifle, cameout and advanced slowly, his weapon at the ready. Raud tensed himselfto jump, aimed carefully, and waited. When the man in blue was ahundred yards from the pit, he shot him dead. The rifle was stilllifting from the recoil when he sprang to his feet, turned, and ran.Before he was twenty feet away, the place where he had been exploded;the force of the blast almost knocked him down, and steam blew pastand ahead of him. Ignoring his pack and ice-staff, he ran on, callingto Brave to follow. The dog obeyed instantly; more negatron-blastswere thundering and blazing and steaming on the crest of the ridge. Heswerved left, ran up another slope, and slid down the declivitybeyond into the ravine on the other side.
There he paused to eject the empty, make sure that there was no snowin the rifle bore, and reload. The blasting had stopped by then; aftera moment, he heard the voice of Vahr Farg's son, and guessed that thetwo surviving thieves had advanced to the blasted crest of the otherridge. They'd find the pack, and his tracks and Brave's. He wonderedwhether they'd come hunting for him, or turn around and go the otherway. He knew what he'd do, under the circumstances, but he doubted ifVahr's mind would work that way. The Southron's might; he wouldn'twant to be caught between blaster-range and rifle-range of Raud theKeeper again.
"Come, Brave," he whispered, looking quickly around and then startingto run.
Lay a trail down this ravine for them to follow. Then get to the topof the ridge beside it, double back, and wait for them. Let them pass,and shoot the Southron first. By now, Vahr would have a negatronpistol too, taken from the body of the man in blue, but it wasn't aweapon he was accustomed to, and he'd be more than a little afraid ofit.
The ravine ended against an upthrust face of ice, at right angles tothe ridge he had just crossed; there was a V-shaped notch betweenthem. He turned into this; it would be a good place to get to thetop....
He found himself face to face, at fifteen feet, with Vahr Farg's sonand the Southron in yellow, coming through from the other side. Theyhad their packs, the Southron had the bearskin bundle, and they haddrawn negatron pistols in their hands.
Swinging up the rifle, he shot the Southron in the chest, making surehe hit him low enough to miss the Crown. At the same time, he shouted:
"_Catch, Brave!_"
Brave never jumped for the deer or wild-ox that had been shot; alwaysfor the one still on its feet. He launched himself straight at thethroat of Vahr Farg's son--and into the muzzle of Vahr's blaster. Hedied in a blue-white flash.
Raud had reversed the heavy rifle as Brave leaped; he threw it,butt-on, like a seal-spear, into Vahr's face. As soon as it was out ofhis fingers, he was jumping forward, snatching out his knife. His lefthand found Vahr's right wrist, and he knew that he was driving theknife into Vahr's body, over and over, trying to keep the blasterpointed away from him and away from the body of the dead Southron. Atlast, the negatron-pistol fell from Vahr's fingers, and the arm thathad been trying to fend off his knife relaxed.
He straightened and tried to stand--he had been kneeling on Vahr'sbody, he found--and reeled giddily. He got to his feet and stumbled tothe other body, kneeling beside it. He tried for a long time before hewas able to detach the bearskin bundle from the dead man's pack. Thenhe got the pack open, and found dried venison. He started to divideit, and realized that there was no Brave with whom to share it. He hadjust se
nt Brave to his death.
Well, and so? Brave had been the Keeper's dog. He had died for theCrown, and that had been his duty. If he could have saved the Crown bygiving his own life, Raud would have died too. But he could not--ifRaud died the Crown was lost.
The sky was darkening rapidly, and the snow was whitening the body ingreen. Moving slowly, he started to make camp for the night.
It was still snowing when he woke. He started to rise, wondering, atfirst, where Brave was, and then he huddled back among the robes--hisown and the dead men's--and tried to go to sleep again. Finally, hegot up and ate some of his pemmican, gathered his gear and broke camp.For a moment, and only a moment, he stood looking to the east, in thedirection he had come from. Then he turned west and started across thesnow toward the edge of the Ice-Father.
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