Dogs were useless. The animal roamed the field they were loose in, and they did not attack nor even seem to know it was there.
The colonists were called upon for guard duty again, but it evaded them. They patrolled for a week and they still did not catch sight of it.
Hafner called them in and rigged up an alarm system in the field most frequented by the animal. It detected that, too, and moved its sphere of operations to a field in which the alarm system had not been installed.
Hafner conferred with the engineer, who devised an alarm that would react to body radiation. It was buried in the original field and the old alarm was moved to another.
Two nights later, just before dawn, the alarm rang.
Marin met Hafner at the edge of the settlement. Both carried rifles. They walked; the noise of any vehicle was likely to frighten the animal. They circled around and approached the field from the rear. The men in the camp had been alerted. If they needed help, it was ready.
They crept silently through the underbrush. It was feeding in the field, not noisily, yet they could hear it. The dogs hadn't barked.
They inched nearer. The blue sun of Glade came up and shone full on their quarry. The gun dropped in Hafner's hand. He clenched his teeth and raised it again.
Marin put out a restraining arm. "Don't shoot," he whispered.
"I'm the exec here. I say it's dangerous."