"Not alive. I won't be much good to you dead, will I?"
After a moment Sampson re-holstered his gun. He looked around at the others.
Someone said, "We can get along without that son."
Sampson growled at him. "Shut up. We can't. You'd have been sucked dry by that spider-thing yesterday if Garth hadn't seen it in time. He knows where to walk in this hell-hole."
Garth didn't say anything. He waited, holding his gun with casual lightness.
Sampson glared. "What do you want, then?"
"I want you to keep going—finish what you started."
"Then what?"
"We may find weapons—and other things."
"Suppose we don't?"