Ed took the steelite from his shoulder again. He walked along the foot of the cliff for a while, counting his steps. When he reached three hundred, he fired the hook and waited. It caught first try. He started the motor on his harness and rose quickly up the rock face.

When he broke through the trees Ed saw that the cliff was long and flat, with the inevitable purple flowers along its crest. The creature was just finishing its own climb, slowly taking the rope hand over hand. It looked tired.

But now Ed could see what he was chasing. It surprised him. He had expected something like a monkey, but this animal was smooth-skinned, and it was wearing some kind of cloth on its lower body, very much like trousers. It also had a stick tied to its back. It was a tool-using humanoid.

Ed hesitated now. Perhaps, he thought, this was going to be too difficult for one man from earth to handle. This creature was obviously more intelligent than any he had trailed before. It was capable of hiding, attacking and ambushing. It used tools and made weapons. It was probably leading him into territory it knew well. For all his equipment, Ed was suddenly not so keen on going through with this job.

But the creature had seen Ed too. It jumped away from the cliff and settled on its haunches, watching him intently. Ed trained his scanner on it for a moment and picked up some readings. What was it thinking? What was it planning? Would it try to attack him again? And where were the others? There had to be others? Were they watching from somewhere else, while the earthman walked right into their trap?

Ed suddenly thought of his reconnaissance craft, still sitting where he had landed it. All the equipment was sitting round it. The cockpit was open. These creatures might be, even now, helping themselves to everything. Ed felt regret sliding down his spine like a cold sponge. Now he understood what the chase was all about. He had been deliberately lured away from his ship so the other creatures could inspect it.

He spun round and rammed the hook of his line into the rock then he absailed like a falling stone to the base of the cliff. Even as the steelite wound itself back he began to run. "What a fool I've been?" he said to himself. Over and over, as he crashed through the trees, jumping and lurching to get through, "What a stupid fool!" and then out into the sunlight and along the dagger of purple, down the valley, back to the side of the ravine and up the hill. He knew what he would see when he reached the top, but there was no alternative. He had to keep going.