The Defiant Agents

made the signal pattern just as his ancestors a hundred years earlier and far across space had used trade mirrors to relay war alerts among the Chiricahua and White Mountain

is shirt, waiting for a reply. Mirrors were best, not smoke fires which would b

it that

eside the Apache. Menlik, Hulagur, and Kaydessa were riding with Travis, offering him one of their small ponies to

d knowing his people's skill at the business, Travis was certain the Tatars would never suspect their flanking unless the Apaches purposefully revealed themselves. Also the

nowledgment to the sentry ahead. "

way I

the ears of all with hearing. This is for the eyes only of those on wa

head," Travi

The Tatars had shucked their heavy jackets and rolled the fur brims of their hats far up their heads aw

watch for the scouts. And not for the first time he thought of the disappearance of the coyotes. Somehow, back in the

g on Topaz. Why they had left him so unceremoniously after defending him from the Mongol attack, and why they were keeping themselves aloof now, he

g like four-footed beasts running before hunters. Finally Travis sighted what he had been seeking, a flicker of movement on the wall well

ooted her mount to dr

lushed with heat, was

out you, Wolf Daughter?" he inquired soft

The quirt she had half raised to slash

the next. But the utter hopelessness of the Tatar position was too plain. Only Menlik made no move toward any weapon, even his spi

Travis poi

them were already on their way to the point Buck had selected for the meeting place. There had been only six

mewhere ahead was water, one of those oases of growth and life which pock

n by the girl and Travis. Travis wondered if they still waited for some arrow to strike

arms folded across his chest, armed only with his belt knife. Grouped behind him were Deklay, Tsoay, Nolan, Manulito-Travis tabulated hurriedly. Manulito and Deklay were to be classed together-or had been when

d entirely of those who were ready to leave the past of the Redax-a collection of Bucks and Jil-Le

he pony push forward by hims

... Hulagur, who is son to a chief ... and Kaydessa, who is daughter to a chief. They

lan, Manulito, Tsoay," he named them all, "thes

clansmen on his side of that irregular circle. Deklay's expression was closed; he had even edged a short way back, as if

t as he had learned it from her and from Menlik. He was careful to speak in English so that the Tatars could hear all he was reporting to his own kind

to do with t

, "the Pinda-lick-o-yi (whom we call 'Reds,') are never willing to live side by side with any who are not of their mind. And they have weapons such as make our

is a large land, and we know how to use

ravis replied. "With their mac

t all you can talk about? It would seem that you are bewit

Pinda-lick-o-yi is greater than ours when it deals with metal and wire and things which can be made with both. Machines brought us along the r

not number many. But more may later come from our own w

For they have weapons to guard them, or long since they would have been dead. It is not proper for a man

n killed among

led," Menlik r

two to her brother. Hulagur's head came

e say?" Dekl

escape of three and so afterward was slain by the leader a

Standard-that they will also die," Menlik added. "B

se Reds away from their protected camp-out into the open. When they now go they are covere

s feet. "This machine does not hunt us, and we can make our

ge of machines they can use. It does no one well to say 'doxa-da'-thi

f prestige. A nantan-chief had the go'ndi, the high power, as a gift from birth. Common men could possess horse power or cattle power; they might have the gift of acquiring wealth so they could make generous gifts-be ikadntl'izi, the wealthy ones who spoke for their f

clan. Deklay and those of a like mind might elect to wi

for horses, a camp for our visitors. They will wait here." He looked

oposition of alliance to the Apaches needed an impartial spokesman. And if he himself did it,

ll," Trav

n in the morning when the shadow lies here." With the toe of his high moccasin he made an impressio

t one?" Kaydessa asked

e, bringing out the body of a split-horn calf which had been left them. Menlik sat on his heels by th

ll not like it either." He flipped water drops from his fingers. "But this I do know, man who calls himself Fox, if we do not make a common cause, then we have no

ink also," Tr

we," Menlik said, smiling. "And since we can take a

e valley, making a lengthy business of rubbing down their horses with twists of last season's grass. Now and the

of those three alien structures contain such a grab bag of the past as he, Ashe, and Murdock had found on that other world where the winged people had gathered together for them the artifacts of an older civilization? At that time h

ing them-with the ship wrecked on the mountain side. Only-Travis' fingers itched where they

turned, opening his eyes with the languid effort of a sleep

t is

mind was wryly amused at that snarled estimate of their situation. Men who had been dropped into their racial and ancestral pasts until the present time was less real than

nds about this questioning, but the Tatar camp had been close to the towers and there was

ow. He took his wand, pl

But one learns not to dispute what one feels here-and here-" His long, somewhat grimy fingers went to his forehead and then to

isp

stinguish. You can hear them as one hears the buzzing of an insect, but

e to ex

Fox, truly do I wonder. This is not our world. And

ething beyond human description? Travis could not be sure, but

t you were on that first ship, the one which brought you unwilling

e Menlik had played in the present before he had been reconditioned into a shaman of the Horde, h

he clothing skintight to reveal unnaturally thin limbs. There were large eyes, small nose and mouth, rather crowde

s. Yet for all its alien quality Travis was sure he had seen its like before

bare, such a head lying face down on a bone-thin arm clad

rst found it-the dead alien officer had still been seated at its controls! The alien who had se

such a one?" The Apache

the valley. I thought I could almost see such a face in one

, the remnant of a civilization which had flourished ten thousand years ago? Were the Baldies, who centuri

ough, steel tough, yet his own description of that epic chase and the final meeting had carried with it his terror. What cou