"
"The ghosts did it?" Ross wanted to know.
"I asked that. No, it seems that strange tribesmen overran it at night."
"At night?" McNeil whistled.
"Just so." Ashe's tone was dry. "The tribes do not fight that way.
Either someone slipped up in his briefing, or the Reds are overconfident
and don't care about the rules. But it was the work of tribesmen, or
their counterfeits. There is also a nasty rumor speeding about that the
ghosts do not relish traders and that they might protest intrusions of
such with penalties all around----"
"Like the Wrath of Lurgha," supplied Ross.
"There is a certain repetition in this which suggests a lot to the
suspicious mind," Ashe agreed.
"I'd say no more hunting expeditions for the present," McNeil said. "It
is too easy to mistake a friend for a deer and weep over his grave
afterward."
"That is a thought which entered my mind several times this afternoon,"
Ashe agreed. "These people are deceptively simple on the surface, but
their minds do not work along the same patterns as ours.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167