Part 7 (2/2)

When they were well gone the robed one took up the wand. Holding it out beyond, the cloaked leader of the second party approached the two piles of salvage the workers had heaped into rough order. There was a detailed inspection of both until the robed one came upon the body.

At a trilled order two of the warriors came up and laid out the corpse.

When the robed one nodded they stood well back. The rod moved, the tip rather than the k.n.o.bbed head being pointed at the body.

Ross's head snapped back. That bolt of light, energy, fire--whatever it was--issuing from the rod had dazzled him into momentary blindness. And a vibration of force through the air was like a blow.

When he was able to see once more there was nothing at all on the sand where the corpse had lain, nothing except a gla.s.sy trough from which some spirals of vapor arose. Ross clung to his rock support badly shaken.

Men with swords ... and now this--some form of controlled energy which argued of technical development and science. Just as the cliff castle had bombarded with rocks s.h.i.+ps sailing with a speed which argued engine power of an unknown type. A mixture of barbaric and advanced knowledge.

To a.s.sess this, he needed more experience, more knowledge than he possessed. Now Ashe could....

Ashe!

Ross was jerked back to his own quest. The rod was quiet, no more sparks were flung from its k.n.o.b. And under Ross's touch his sonic was quiet also. He snapped off the broadcast. If that device had picked up the flickering of the rod, the reverse could well be true.

The cloaked one chose from the pile of goods, and its escort gathered up the designated boxes, a small cask or two. So laden, the party returned south the way they had come. Ross allowed his breath to expel in a sigh of relief.

He worked his way farther north along the coast, watching other parties of the furred workers and their guards. Lines of the former climbed the cliff, hauling their spoil, their destination the castle. But Ross saw no sign of Ashe, received no answer to the sonic code he had reset once the strangers were out of distance. And the Terran began to realize that his present search might well be fruitless, though he fought against accepting it.

When he turned back to the slit cave Ross's fear was ready to be expressed in anger, the anger of frustration over his own helplessness.

With no chance of trying to penetrate the castle, he could not learn whether or not Ashe had been taken prisoner. And until the workers left the beach he could not prowl there hunting the grimmer evidence his mind flinched from considering.

Karara waited for him on the inner ledge. There was no sign of the dolphins and as Ross pulled out of the water, pus.h.i.+ng aside his mask, her face in the thin light of the cave was deeply troubled.

”You did not find him,” she made that a statement rather than a question.

”No.”

”And I did not find it--”

Ross used a length of weed from the nest as a towel. But now he stood very still.

”The gate ... no sign of it?”

”Just this--” She reached behind her and brought up a sealed container.

Ross recognized one of the supply cans they had had in the cache by the gate. ”There are others ... scattered. Taua and Tino-rau seek them now.

It is as if all that was on the other side was sucked through with us.”

”You are sure you found the right place?”

”Is--is this not part of it?” Again the girl sought for something on the ledge. What she held out to him was a length of metal rod, twisted and broken at one end as if a giant hand had wrenched it loose from the installation.

Ross nodded dully. ”Yes,” his voice was harsh as if the words were pulled out of him against his will and against all hope--”that's part of a side bar. It--it must have been totally wrecked.”

Yet, even though he held that broken length in his hands, Ross could not really believe the gate was gone. He swam out once more, heading for the reef where the dolphins joined him as guides. There was a second piece of broken tube, the scattered containers of supplies, that was all. The Terrans were wrecked in time as surely as those s.h.i.+ps had been wrecked on the sea reef the night before!

<script>