vestigial ears were hidden deep in his fur and no longer served any
real purpose; the mind touch served him in their stead. Dalgard caught
his thought, though what had aroused his companion was too rare a
thread to trouble his less acute senses.

"Runners in the dark--"

Dalgard frowned. "It is still sun time. What disturbs them?"

To the eye Sssuri was still listening to that which his friend could
not hear.

"They come from afar. They are on the move to find new hunting
grounds."

Dalgard sat up. To each and every scout from Homeport the unusual was
a warning, a signal to alert mind and body. The runners in the
night--that furred monkey race of hunters who combed the moonless dark
of Astra when most of the higher fauna were asleep--were very
distantly related to Sssuri's species, though the gap between them was
that between highly civilized man and the jungle ape. The runners were
harmless and shy, but they were noted also for clinging stubbornly to
one particular district generation after generation. To find such a
clan on the move into new territory was to be fronted with a puzzle it
might be well to investigate.

"A snake-devil--" he suggested tentatively, forming a mind picture of
the vicious reptilian danger which the colonists tried to kill on
sight whenever and wherever encountered. His hand went to the knife at
his belt. One met with weapons only that hissing hatred motivated by a