Van Rycke did ask for one concession which was reluctantly granted.  He received permission for the spacer’s men to carry their sleep rods.  Though the Salariki, apparently for some reason of binding and hoary custom, were totally opposed to hunting their age-old enemy with anything other than their duelists’ weapons of net and claw knife.

“Go along with them,” Captain Jellico gave his final orders to the four, “as long as it doesn’t mean your own necks—­understand?  On the other hand dead heroes have never helped to lift a ship.  And these gorp are tough from all accounts.  You’ll just have to use your own judgment about springing your rods on them—­” He looked distinctly unhappy at that thought.

Ali was grinning and little Weeks tightened his weapon belt with a touch of swagger he had never shown before.  Rip was his usual soft voiced self, dependable as a rock and a good base for the rest of them—­taking command without question as they marched off to join Groft’s company.

Chapter V

THE PERILOUS SEAS

The gorp hunters straggled through the grass forest in family groups, and the Terrans saw that the enterprise had forced another uneasy truce upon the district, for there were representatives from more than just Paft’s own clan.  All the Salariki were young and the parties babbled together in excitement.  It was plain that this hunt, staged upon a large scale, was not only a means of revenge upon a hated enemy but, also, a sporting event of outstanding prestige.

Now the grass trees began to show ragged gaps, open spaces between their clumps, until the forest was only scattered groups and the party the Terrans had joined walked along a trail cloaked in knee-high, yellow-red fern growth.  Most of the Salariki carried unlit torches, some having four or five bundled together, as if gorp hunting must be done after nightfall.  And it was fairly late in the afternoon before they topped a rise of ground and looked out upon one of Sargol’s seas.

The water was a dull-metallic gray, broken by great swaths of purple as if an artist had slapped a brush of color across it in a hit or miss fashion.  Sand of the red grit, lightened by the golden flecks which glittered in the sun, stretched to the edge of the wavelets breaking with only languor on the curve of earth.  The bulk of islands arose in serried ranks farther out—­crowned with grass trees all rippling under the sea wind.

They came out upon the beach where one of the purple patches touched the shore and Dane noted that it left a scummy deposit there.  The Terrans went on to the water’s edge.  Where it was clear of the purple stuff they could get a murky glimpse of the bottom, but the scum hid long stretches of shoreline and outer wave, and Dane wondered if the gorp used it as a protective covering.