Ghor already was walking rapidly back toward the gully.
"Couldn't you make some other poison to get rid of them again?" Alf asked.
"I might, but it would take time. And—" Ghor seemed to choke, "—it was the poison that killed my father."
As Ghor reached the first turn in the gulley, he halted and then sprang back. A gleaming spark landed at his feet and heated the rock to incandescense.
"Trapped!" he groaned. "There's a forest of Ngyes in the path ahead of us."
Mick pushed forward, his ray gun in hand. He caught a glimpse of a forest of leafless stems, surmounted by ugly, bulging bulbs. Ghor tugged Mick back, just as a shower of sparks shot from the stalks.
"How do they know where we are?" Mick asked. "Doesn't our degaussing equipment work?"
"The Ngye has more sensitive perception than most plants. You forget the radio waves from our phones. The plants are able to find us by those."
"Maybe we can rush them," Mick suggested. "Alf and I can use our ray guns to burn a path through to the cabin—"
Ghor shook his head.