"Leeger! I thought he was missing."
"He reappeared. He had known of our plan. He had boarded, somewhere. He was back there, beyond the end of our party. He shouted the warning to me. That is why you and I moved up the line, and have kept ourselves hidden."
"He shouted a warning to you—"
"That Gravgak is also on board, looking for me."
11.
Weeks earlier, a search party had given up. It had all happened quietly. Tomboldo had kept a few of his top scouts on the job (as I now learned) and for months after our journey had begun they had scoured the scaly surfaces of Kao-Wagwattl, looking in vain for Gravgak.
Could we rest assured, then, that Gravgak had been bluffed out? That he had given up his purpose of trying to take Vauna? That he had long since climbed off the Kao-Wagwattl and gone back home?
We hoped so. Nevertheless we moved cautiously as our searches took us back through the long line of Benzendellas.
Then, without warning, we suddenly came upon Leeger. He saw us from a distance of fifty yards or less. We had come to the end of our tribe's settlement—evidently beyond the end; for in the last quarter of a mile we had found no persons dwelling among the scales.