"My Stripe has a long tradition of honoring its promises,' Nrrna said with a swift sideways glance toward him before returning to her inventory check. Halfway between checking off a film tape for educating small children about bacteria control and reaching for the next film in the stack, she heard an annoyed snort, and the Treaty Controller swept away, holding the small doc.u.ment box. She sighed with relief.

"My goods are all accounted for,' she told the grid operator.

"Will you transport me and this shipment now to First Village?" The gesture with which the irritated technician directed her onto the platform showed that he would be very glad indeed to get rid of her.

For her sake, he had nearly had to annoy the Treaty Controller.

No male, not even a Treaty- Controller, should persist when a female has made her disinterest so plain. He would be glad to see the last of both of them and the end of a possible disgraceful incident.

The moment that the village coalesced around Nrrna, she shoved the crate off the grid and tapped the code to open it. Kelly exploded up in the midst of a snowstorm of plastic packets. They were plastered all over her like wet leaves.

"Oh, my poor neck,' she groaned. "This was such a good idea but neither of us counted on sweat and plastic suffocation. I hope I don't offend your nose."

"I am so glad you are all right,' Nrrna said, trying hard to keep her nostrils from flaring at the reek of the Hayuman. She couldn't help her current odoriferousness and Nrrna helped Kelly out.

"I would not have left you in it so long, but that wretched ol' cat'-and Kelly blinked at such an epithet coming from the gentle and polite Nrrna-'of a Controller was revoltingly offensive!" Nrrna almost spat in outrage and Kelly could see every single hair of her stripe was standing up.

Nrrna began to pick the static-charged packets off Kelly's hair and clothes. Each time she tried to put a pile down, they seemed to spring back to adhere to her fur. when Kelly tried to help, it only made matters worse. The packets merely transferred themselves from Nrrna to Kelly. Frustration gave way to laughter and then Nrrna thought of moistening her hands, and when that seemed to help, Kelly wet hers and they began to divest themselves of their unusual decorations.

"I heard him, the old tomcat,' Kelly said, grinning at Nrrna.

"But he's a persistent b.u.g.g.e.r, isn't he? I thought males didn't bother females without permission.

"It's partly my fault,' Nrrna said. "I used too much of a provocative scent."

"Not to get his attention, I'll warrant." Nrrna wrinkled her nose. "The operator was too well mannered to pursue me, but it kept him interested until white muzzle interfered."

"All's well that ends well. But remind me not to ride in a crate again,' Kelly said when the last of the gloves were stuffed back into their container, and the top was clamped down again. "I also caught that bit about you reconsidering him so he could provide for you when you had to return to Hrruba.

What's happened since I left here?"

"Nothing,' Nrrna said, but she was as worried about his phraseology as Kelly was. Possibly more than Kelly was, for she had lived on Rrala all her life and the quarters of her clan on Hrruba were very crowded.

"what was he waiting to collect? Did you see?"

"A doc.u.ment box.

Well covered with Third Speaker seals, that much I did notice."

"Neither the Treaty Controller nor Third Speaker is a supporter of the colony. Strikes me as odd that that Stripe should be in control with Treaty Renewal approaching. I wonder what kind of doc.u.ments were in that box. "I don't know how we'd find out, but I'd better complete this shipment without any more delay." Nrrna spoke into a radio unit which was hooked to her belt, contacting the Health Center's operator.

"They will send a flitter for the shipment. Now, did you have any luck on Terra?"

"I sure did, Nrrna. We've got a Poldep inspector on our side, willing to look into certain oddities that came to light. I want to tell the Reeves, but I'll meet you later at Hrriss's so I only have to tell this twice, but tell him I got good news." She was stretching and working her arms and legs to relieve the kinks. "I never could have found out so much without your help, Nrrna. You've been a star! See you soon." With a final wave, Kelly jogged off toward the Friendship Bridge on her way to collect Calypso and make her way to the Reeve Ranch.

Todd took one look at her and yelled, "what did you do to your hair?" "My hair?" she shrieked back at him, hand to her head before she remembered the rinse. "I couldn't go back to Earth in my own hair and expect to be unnoticed!"

"To Earth?" he roared, white-faced with shock.

when he had finished bawling her out for the risks she had taken, she got just as angry right back at him for not letting her deliver her good news.

"In the first place, I was never in danger, Todd Reeve. In the second place, I got more information than I ever thought I'd get, and thirdly, we got Inspector DeVeer actively pursuing an investigation on our behalf."

"Is that Kelly Solinari with you, Todd?" Pat called, and rushed into the room, her expression both anxious and relieved. "Young woman, where have you been? Your family's been worried sick about you.

And what have you done to your hair?"

"It washes out and I left my parents a note to say I'd be away a few days. Didn't they get it?" At that moment, Ken Reeve came bursting into the room. "Robin was right.

It was Calypso tearing up the road. where have you been? And what did you do to your hair?"

"I dyed it! And if you'll all drop out of panic mode, I'll tell you why I dyed it and where I've been and what I've been doing,' Kelly yelled back, glaring at all of them. Then she turned less aggressively to Pat. "That is, if I can have a drink to soothe my throat after all the shouting I have to do in this house to get listened to." It was Todd who provided the jwce and then sat down at the table, where she began the recital of her inquiries.

"Nrrna helped?" Todd interrupted as she began.

Then, "How well did you know this Dalkey? Can you trust him?"

"I probably shouldn't have mentioned his name, Kelly said tartly, "but I trust you not to repeat it.

And not to get stupid about me approaching the only one I felt could help us. And he's still helping us, or rather Inspector DeVeer is." "Cool it, Todd,' Ken said in an aside. "Continue, Kelly." She did but was aware that Todd was uncharacteristically morose until she got to the part about DeVeer taking her with him to interrogate Klonski.

"You see, we were all working on the wrong a.s.sumption,' she said, looking at Ken, "that the brands had been altered somehow. Even Kiachif thought Klonski might be able to do that but he didn't. In fact, he burst out laughing at the very notion that he was being accused of rustling." The others didn't quite seem to see the humor in that, so she continued. "He did much worse. .. all to incriminate you,' and now she turned her gaze to Todd to see the dawning of hope in his eyes.

"Klonski altered the log tapes . . . By the way, which of you handed them over to Rogitel?"

"Neither of us did. He removed them from the unit himself,' Todd said.

"Well, then, that's when he switched them." Todd opened his mouth to protest. "You know, you're right. He bundled the log box into a plastic sack and carried it off in a proprietary fashion. I didn't think about it till now and I was certainly too shocked at all he was flinging at Hrriss and me to think his manner odd. Kelly nodded. "It had to be Rogitel subst.i.tuting the altered tapes and at that moment, since the ship had been properly sealed. I wonder where your real log went."

"Into the nearest vat of acid,' Todd said with a deep sigh.

"Possibly not,' Ken suggested thoughtfully. "Go on, Kelly. what else did Klonski do?" Her eyes glowed. "This is sort of the best part.

He altered satellite security modes."

"He what?" Ken lifted off his chair and Todd stared at her as if she had suddenly changed shape.

"Don't know how, do know why,' she went on.

"To let the rustlers in and out,' Ken continued, throwing both arms in the air at such an obvious explanation.

"Klonski was rather proud of that. And DeVeer has it all on tape!" Kelly said, grinning broadly.

"Is DeVeer really on our side, Kelly?" Ken asked, his expression grim.

"I think so, sir,' Kelly replied. "He admitted he doesn't really like the Doona Experiment. He was alive when the Siwanna Tragedy occurred but he also admitted that colored his opinions. But,' and she waggled her finger at all three Reeves, "he's out to crush the rustling because too many uninoculated animals are being transported illegally.

And he said the incidents of rustling had increased all out of proportion. He couldn't figure out why."

"I brought the illegal hides to him .

"And I've been squaring my eyeb.a.l.l.s trying to match missing horses to those hides with duplicate Reeve marks." Ken brought his fist down on the table so smartly that it startled everyone else. "Okay, we've had the wrong end of the stick. Kiachif gave me a clue in reporting Mark Aden helping to load that leopard Apple for export. He was also about the height you are now, Todd, dark-haired and blue eyes, and to Zapatans that description also fits you. Let's a.s.sume that Mark rustled while he worked for me.

So he probably stashed unmarked foals, born in the pastures, in some blind canyon. He had the run of our ranch as well as our neighbors'. He could have picked up unbranded foals from all over.

Every breeder expects a few mares to abort in a year or lose their foals to mdas before we round "em up for branding. But just one or two from fifty or so ranches, and that'd make a nice shipment offworld.

Especially if someone is turning off the satellite tape-or however your Klonski rigged the system, and your rustler's away with no one the wiser."

"s.p.a.cedep is involved up to its armpits,' Kelly said, "and I think Inspector DeVeer is going to prove it. which reminds me, I promised my friend Dalkey that I'd sponsor him to Doona."

"You did?" Todd gave her the queerest look she'd ever seen on his face.

"How else can we repay him for the help he's given?"

"If there is a Doona for him to come to,' Todd said in a bleak tone. "Neither Hrriss nor I is cleared "You will be!" Kelly said emphatically.

"Kelly, this family can never properly repay you, Pat said, tears of relief in her eyes. She dabbed at them with the edge of the dish towel she had had in her hand when she heard Kelly arrive.

"We're neighbors, aren't we?" Kelly replied, struggling not to get too sentimental. Wanting very much to hear Todd commend her. "And it's Hrriss and Todd who've been jeopardized. I don't let my friends get done over. How much more time dowe have before the trial?" She looked at Ken Reeve because she couldn't look at Todd, who still faced that ordeal unless lots of things fell into place in the next few days.

"We've not yet been informed,' Ken said in a taut voice. Then his face broke into a relieved smile and he leaned forward with his elbows on the table.

"Look, we can't do much about the satellite . .

"Kiachif?" Todd asked, also leaning forward, his expression alert even if he wouldn't look at Kelly next to him.

"Possibly,' Ken said, "and I don't know how we'd locate the genuine log tape -, "Emma Sumitral?" Pat suggested, her eyes brighter with hope than with tears.

"I can ask, but now we concentrate our efforts on finding where stolen livestock could have been hidden."

"Tadpole in a tangle of tiddlers,' Todd said, "but there'd have to be water, good gra.s.s, some sort of shelter. . "Well off all known trails, especially snake ones,' Kelly added. "But every rancher'll help now."

"They've all been helping. . ." And Todd inadvertently turned his head toward her.

Kelly held her breath, not wanting to turn away from the look in his eyes, keen again and as intense as they got when he was thinking rapidly, as he did on a Snake Hunt, examining and rejecting alternatives.

He was her buoyant, marvelous, alive Todd again.

He lifted his body from the chair in a lithe movement. "I'll send out a revised message, for mares that ought to have foaled and didn't come in with foal at foot. Let's see how many come up missing on that data!" "No, son,' and Ken grabbed Todd's arm as he pa.s.sed. "You'll saddle up Gypsy and go out hunting for likely places to stash livestock. Pat, you send out a blanket message to all ranches to be on the lookout for such storage spots, and also query folks about barren mares. Kelly, will you ask your father and brothers to help?"

"I'll go there first, but I promised Nrrna that I'd come over and give Hrriss the good news as soon as I'd told you." She dared look at Todd again.

"You were nearer Hrriss if you came in on the village grid,' he said.

Kelly c.o.c.ked her head at him, thought she wanted to shake him out of his stasis. Couldn't he see what her priority was? She planted her fists at her belt so she wouldn't do something drastic in front of his parents. "I've got my priorities in order, Todd Reeve. Hrriss doesn't ranch horses." With that she pushed past him and out of the house, down the steps, and vaulted to Calypso's back before she thought what she was doing.

"Hey . Kelly?" Todd's plaintive, puzzled call followed her down the track.

when he went back into the house, he saw the amused expressions on his parents' faces. "what'd I do to upset her?"

"For a bright man, you can be as dense as two planks,' his mother said, and took herself back to the kitchen.

Todd looked at his father, who was making strangled noises.

"I think, son, it's more what you didn't do that's upset her. And you should get your priorities right.

But not now. Now we got some rustler pens to find.

You'll have time to apologize to Kelly later."

"Apologize?" Ken turned his son around and shoved him toward the door. "Saddle my horse when you're tacking Gypsy. Tell Lon what we're going to look for and let's get going!" Ken's voice raised to a triumphant shout as Todd pitched forward and out the door from his father's hefty push.

what he should apologize to Kelly for bothered him as soon as he set off in the southeasterly direction his father had appointed him to search so that he could stay within the Reeve Ranch limits for more klicks than if he went west ornorth.

Perhaps he ought to have been more effusive in his thanks, but he'd been so scared that Kelly had done something stupid-which she had, only it worked out right-or been abducted-which was not really a possibility, but in his anxiety he had imagined all kinds of gory fates. She really had come up a heroine to smuggle herself back to Earth on a Hrruban grid. . . he ground his teeth, knowing that she had faced a sentence of life on a penal world if she'd been caught. why hadn't she gone to one of those girlfriends she'd told him about? who was this Dalkey Petersham? why would she sponsor a Terran to Doona, a Terran working in s.p.a.cedep? It was a.n.a.logous to inviting Jilamey Landreau to a weekend at her family's lake cabin.

And this DeVeer Polly! who hadn't really listened to his father when he reported hides that didn't match their records. They had got the wrong end of that stick, l right. Stupid not to have tumbled to the duplications. Kiachif once again to the rescue. Only then did Todd become aware that Gypsy's gallop was slowing. Gently he eased the gray to a more sedate pace. No sense taking his frustration out on his horse. He gave Gypsy's neck several affectionate slaps to rea.s.sure him and kneed him toward the nearest height. It commanded a good view over to the next range of hills. As he reined Gypsy in, he looked out over the land, peaceful and greening up well. More mares would be foaling.

An odd noise attracted both him and Gypsy a the same time, the horse p.r.i.c.king his ears anc turning his head to the right. An echo it was, a has, echo, too loud for a nearby mda. The sounc gathered intensity, and suddenly, out of the fold 0 the hills before him, he saw the pointed snout of shuttle angling upward. It pulled up above the hills1 its engines roaring, thrusters blazing.

Todd sent Gypsy down the hill at a gallop while he grabbed for his radio and called the ranch.

"Mom! Notify Martinson at once. A shuttle jusi illegally lifted off our property. I'm going to see ii there are any traces of stock near the launch burn."

"what? Are you sure, Todd?"

"Mom! Don't argue.

Tell Martinson to monitor the tracking satellites. They can catch him as he leaves the atmosphere." Despite the clip at which he pushed Gypsy, it took him nearly an hour to reach the launch spot.

what he saw there made him weep, but it was also incontrovertible truth that someone had been rustling Reeve livestock. Concealed in a fold of the hill, where trees formed a screen, a paddock had been fenced, the posts and rails so well disguised by shrubs, some of them rroamal, that Ken, or Todd, or Lon could have ridden by here every day and never noticed the setup. They wouldn't have looked past the rroamal to the glade, for horses avoided that plant as carefully as Humans did.

Water had been piped into a big barrel, fitted with a stopc.o.c.k.

Dung dotted the little glade, enough for twenty or so horses, just the number to make a nice profit for the rustler's efforts. But not nIl the horses had been loaded and that's what upset Todd the most.

Three yearlings, well grown, freeze-marked with the Reeve brand, lay on the ground. One had a broken neck-probably caused fighting to resist being loaded, for the rope burns on head and neck were obvious. The other two had broken legs. The nails that had been driven between their eyes into their skulls had not been removed. Todd shuddered.

Circling the corral, Todd also found the bleach marks that freeze-brand chemicals made when carelessly spilled.

His radio bleeped.

"Todd?" It was Lon.

"They caught "em?"

"Nothing, Todd,' and Lon's voice sounded as savage as Todd felt. "Linc Newry says there was no alarm from the orbiters."