Genesis | Page 9

came.
"Hairy People. Four," he reported. "I shot two; she threw a spear and killed another. The
other ran."
The daughter of Seldar Glav and Olva nodded in agreement.
"I had no time to throw again," she said, "and Bo-Bo would not shoot the one that ran."
Kalvar Dard's son, who had no other name than the one his mother had called him as a
child, defended himself. "He was running away. It is the rule: use bullets only to save life,
where a spear will not serve."
Kalvar Dard nodded. "You did right, son," he said, taking out his own pistol and
removing the magazine, from which he extracted two cartridges. "Load these into your
pistol; four rounds aren't enough. Now we each have six. Go back to the rear, keep the
little ones moving, and don't let Varnis get behind."
"That is right. _We must all look out for Varnis, and take care of her_," the boy recited
obediently. "That is the rule."
He dropped to the rear. Kalvar Dard holstered his pistol and picked up his axe, and the
column moved forward again. They were following a ledge, now; on the left, there was a
sheer drop of several hundred feet, and on the right a cliff rose above them, growing
higher and steeper as the trail slanted upward. Dard was worried about the ledge; if it
came to an end, they would all be trapped. No one would escape. He suddenly felt old
and unutterably weary. It was a frightful weight that he bore--responsibility for an entire
race.
* * * * *
Suddenly, behind him, Dorita fired her pistol upward. Dard sprang forward--there was no

room for him to jump aside--and drew his pistol. The boy, Bo-Bo, was trying to find a
target from his position in the rear. Then Dard saw the two Hairy People; the boy fired,
and the stone fell, all at once.
It was a heavy stone, half as big as a man's torso, and it almost missed Kalvar Dard. If it
had hit him directly, it would have killed him instantly, mashing him to a bloody pulp; as
it was, he was knocked flat, the stone pinning his legs.
At Bo-Bo's shot, a hairy body plummeted down, to hit the ledge. Bo-Bo's woman
instantly ran it through with one of her spears. The other ape-thing, the one Dorita had
shot, was still clinging to a rock above. Two of the children scampered up to it and
speared it repeatedly, screaming like little furies. Dorita and one of the older girls got the
rock off Kalvar Dard's legs and tried to help him to his feet, but he collapsed, unable to
stand. Both his legs were broken.
This was it, he thought, sinking back. "Dorita, I want you to run ahead and see what the
trail's like," he said. "See if the ledge is passable. And find a place, not too far ahead,
where we can block the trail by exploding that demolition-bomb. It has to be close
enough for a couple of you to carry or drag me and get me there in one piece."
"What are you going to do?"
"What do you think?" he retorted. "I have both legs broken. You can't carry me with you;
if you try it, they'll catch us and kill us all. I'll have to stay behind; I'll block the trail
behind you, and get as many of them as I can, while I'm at it. Now, run along and do as I
said."
She nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can," she agreed.
The others were crowding around Dard. Bo-Bo bent over him, perplexed and worried.
"What are you going to do, father?" he asked. "You are hurt. Are you going to go away
and leave us, as mother did when she was hurt?"
"Yes, son; I'll have to. You carry me on ahead a little, when Dorita gets back, and leave
me where she shows you to. I'm going to stay behind and block the trail, and kill a few
Hairy People. I'll use the big bomb."
"The big bomb? The one nobody dares throw?" The boy looked at his father in wonder.
"That's right. Now, when you leave me, take the others and get away as fast as you can.
Don't stop till you're up to the pass. Take my pistol and dagger, and the axe and the big
spear, and take the little bomb, too. Take everything I have, only leave the big bomb with
me. I'll need that."
Dorita rejoined them. "There's a waterfall ahead. We can get around it, and up to the pass.
The way's clear and easy; if you put off the bomb just this side of it, you'll start a
rock-slide that'll block