"I can't imagine how I got these in my kit. I guess when I was packing everything just went black. Of course, if you'd care to be my companion in crime...?"
Bradford frowned darkly. "I ought to have you in irons for this, Mr. Canham! Now give me one of those things before I break your arm!"
With a muttered word of thanks, Rodriguez laid his carefully aside on a handy rock and slid out of the shelter into the early dark. Canham tossed a facetious remark after him and received the usual unprintable reply.
The other two sat, inhaling luxuriously. Bradford sighed comfortably.
"I think he's snapping out of it. Good thing you noticed what was happening. We'll all have to keep an eye on each other from now on."
"It's enough to drive anybody nuts. Have you noticed anything funny about—well, about the feel of the place?"
Bradford looked at him uneasily.
"What do you mean 'funny'!"
"It's just a feeling I get; you know how a brand-new house that's never been lived in feels different than an old house that's been deserted? They're both empty, but it's a different emptiness. It's the same way with pieces of country—where we trained on that high desert country in Arizona, it had a new, sort of unused feeling about it."
Bradford felt an unacknowledged tingling along his nerve ends.