“What will we do?”

“We change our line of march.  If we drove into it or walked into it we’d be paralyzed.  It’s a tight beam, but there’s just a little scatter.  Just a little.  You might say it leaks at its edges.  We’ll try to follow alongside until it thins out to nothing or we get where we want to go.  Unless,” he added, “they’ve got another beam that crosses it.  Then we’ll be trapped.”

He led the way onward.

They covered four miles of very bad going before Jill showed signs of distress and Lockley halted beside a small, rushing stream.  He saw fish in the clear water and tried to improvise a way to catch them.  He failed.  He said gloomily, “It wouldn’t do to catch fish here anyhow.  A fire to cook them would show smoke by day and might be seen at night.  And whatever’s at the Lake might send a terror beam.  We’ll leave here when you’re rested.”

He examined the stream.  He went up and down its bank.  He disappeared around a curve of the stream.  Jill waited, at first uneasily, then anxiously.

He came back with his hands full of bracken shoots, their ends tightly curled and their root ends fading almost to white.

“I’m afraid,” he observed, “that this is our supper.  It’ll taste a lot like raw asparagus, which tastes a lot like raw peanuts, and a one-dish meal of it won’t stick to your ribs.  That’s the trouble with eating wild stuff.  It’s mostly on the order of spinach.”

“I’ll carry them,” said Jill.

She actually looked at him for the first time.  Until she found herself anxious because he was out of sight for a long time, she hadn’t really regarded him as an individual.  He’d been only a person who was helping her because Vale wasn’t available.  Now she assured herself that Vale would be very grateful to him for aiding her.  “I’m rested now,” she added.

He nodded and led the way once more.  He watched the sun for direction.  Two or three miles from their first halt he said abruptly, “I think the terror beam should be over yonder.”  He waved an arm.  “I’ve got an idea about it.  I’ll see.”

“Be careful!” said Jill uneasily.

He nodded and swung away, moving with a peculiar tentativeness.  She knew that he was testing for the smell which was the first symptom of approach to the alien weapon.

He halted half a mile from where Jill watched, resting again while she gazed after him.  He moved backward and forward.  He marked a place with a stone.  He came well back from it and seemed to remove his wrist watch.  He laid it on a boulder and stamped on it.  He stamped again and again, shifting it between stampings.  Then he pounded it with a small rock.  He stood up and came back, trailing something which glittered golden for an instant.

He halted before he reached the rock he’d placed as a marker.  He did cryptic things, facing away from Jill.  From time to time there was a golden glitter in the air near him.