Soriki's attention fell from the flyer hovering over their heads to
the surface of the roof. Raf had already looked that over without
seeing any opening. But he did not doubt the truth of Lablet's
surmise. Sooner or later the aliens were going to reappear. And it did
not greatly matter to the marooned Terrans whether they would drop
from the sky or rise from below.




5

BANDED DEVIL


Familiar only with the wave-riding outriggers, Dalgard took his seat
in the alien craft with misgivings. And oddly enough it also bothered
him to occupy a post which earlier had served not a nonhuman such as
Sssuri, whom he admired, but a humanoid whom he had been taught from
childhood to avoid--if not fear. The skiff was rounded at bow and
stern with very shallow sides and displayed a tendency to whirl about
in the current, until Sssuri, with his instinctive knowledge of
watercraft, used one of the queerly shaped paddles tucked away in the
bottom to both steer and propel them. They did not strike directly
across the river but allowed the current to carry them in a diagonal
path so that they came out on the opposite bank some distance to the
west.

Sssuri brought them ashore with masterly skill where a strip of sod
angled down to the edge of the water, marking, Dalgard decided, what