Terl swept his scanners around. No, there was nobody else here. He looked back at the animal. Terl's paw quivered an inch above the firing lever. The animal did not seem to be alarmed.

The interior of the tank was compressed with breathe-gas but Terl also had on a breathe-mask. He adjusted it.

Terl picked up an intercom unit and pushed it through the atmosphere-tight firing port. The unit fell to the ground outside the tank. Terl picked up the interior unit.

“Get down off that horse and pick up this intercom,” ordered Terl.

Jonnie slid off the half-broken horse and approached the tank. He picked the unit off the ground and looked through the tank ports for Terl. He could see nothing. The interior was dark and the glass was set to block a view in.

Through the intercom, Terl said, “Did you kill those sentries?”

Jonnie held the outside unit to his face. He thought fast. This Terl was in a very strange state. “We haven't lost any sentries,” he said truthfully.

“You know the sentries I mean. At the compound.”

“Have you had trouble?” said Jonnie.

The word “trouble” almost made Terl's head spin. He didn't know what trouble he had, or what kind of trouble, or from where. He got a grip on himself.

“You obscured the last part of that sign,” he said accusingly.

“Oh?” said Jonnie innocently. He had obscured it on purpose so that Terl would come. “It meant to say, 'The winter is advancing and we need your advice.' "

Terl simmered down. Advice. “About what?” He knew about what. It was next to impossible to get out that gold. But there had to be a way. And he was a miner. Top student of the school, actually. And he studied the recon drone pictures daily. He knew the flexing rods would not let them build a platform. “You need a portable shaft stairway. You've got one in your equipment. You nail it to the outside face and work from it.”

“All right,” said Jonnie. “We'll try it.” He had Terl calmer now that he was on a routine subject of interest.

“We also need some protection in case of uranium,” said Jonnie.

“Why?”

“There's uranium in those mountains,” said Jonnie.

"In the gold?”

“I don't think so. In the valleys and around.” Jonnie thought he had better emphasize that Terl was barred from those places, and also he was desperate for the data. He could not experiment with uranium without protection from it. "I’ve seen men turn blotchy from it,” he added, which was true but not of his present crew.

This seemed to cheer Terl up. “No crap?” he said.

“What gear protects one?”

Terl said, “There's always radiation around on a planet like this and a sun like this. Small amounts. That's why these breathe-masks have leaded glass in their faceplates. That's why all the canopies are leaded glass. You don't have any.”

“It’s lead that protects one?”

“You'll just have to take your chances,” said Terl, amused, feeling better.

“Can you turn a light up here?” asked Jonnie. There was a thump as he laid a sack on the flat section in front of the windscreen.

“I don't want any lights.”

“Do you think you were followed?”

“No. That spinning disc on the roof is a detection wave neutralizer. You needn't worry about our being traced.”

Jonnie looked up at the top of the tank. In the very dim light he could see a thing planted there. It looked like a fan. It was running.

“Turn a light on this,” said Jonnie. Terl looked at his screens. There were no telltales. "I’ll drive ahead under that tree.”

Jonnie steadied the ore sack as Terl slowly put the car under a mask of evergreens. He stopped again and turned on a light that lit up the area in front of the windshield.

With a lift of his arm, Jonnie spilled about ten pounds of ore onto the tank bonnet. It flashed under the light. It was white quartz and wire gold. And it shone and glittered as though it had jewels in it as well. Eight pounds of it was pure wire gold from the lode.

Terl sat and stared through the windscreen at it. He swallowed hard.

“There's a ton of it there,” said Jonnie. "If it can be gotten out. It 's in plain view.”

The Psychlo just sat and looked at the gold through the windscreen. Jonnie scattered it so it shone better.

He picked up the intercom again. “We're keeping our bargain. You must keep yours.”

“What do you mean?” said Terl, detecting accusation.

“You promised to give food and water and firewood to the females.”

Terl shrugged. “Promises,” he said indifferently.

Jonnie put his arm around the gold and started to sweep it back into the ore sack and withdraw it.

The motion was not lost on Terl. “Quit it. How do you know they aren't being cared for?”

Jonnie let the gold lie. He moved over so the light touched his face. He tapped a finger against his forehead.

“There's something you don't know about humans,” said Jonnie. “They have psychic powers sometimes. I have psychic powers with those females.” It would not do to tell Terl that it was the absence of a fire or a scout that alerted him. All's fair in love and war, as Robert the Fox would say, and this was both love and war.

“You mean without radios, right?” Terl had read about this. He hadn't realized these animals had it. Damned animals.

“Right,” said Jonnie. "If she is not well cared for and if she isn't all right, I know!” He tapped his head again.

“Now I have a pack here,” said Jonnie. “It has food and water and flints and firewood and warm robes and a small tent. I’m going to lash it on top of this tank and right away when you get back, you're to put it in the cage. Also get the cage cleaned up, inside and outside, and fix the water supply.”

“It’s just the tank,” said Terl. “It goes empty, needs to be topped up. I’ve been busy.”

“And take those sentries away. You don't need sentries!”

“How did you know there were sentries?” said Terl suspiciously.

“You just told me so, tonight,” said Jonnie into the intercom. “And my psychic powers tell me they tease her.”

“You can't order me around,” bristled Terl.

"Terl, if you don't take care of the females, I just might take it into my head to wander up to those sentries and mention something I know.”

“What!” demanded Terl.

“Just something I know. It wouldn't cause you to be fired but it would be embarrassing.”

Terl suddenly vowed he had better get rid of those sentries.

“You'll know if I don't do these things?” said Terl.

Jonnie tapped his own forehead in the light.

But the threat had unsettled Terl's spinning wits. On an entirely different tack he demanded, "What'll you do with the gold if you don't deliver it?”

“Keep it for ourselves,” said Jonnie, starting again to put it back in the bag.

Terl snarled deep and threateningly. His amber eyes flared in the darkness of the tank. "I’ll be damned if you will!” he shouted. Leverage, leverage! “Listen! Did you ever hear of a drone bomber? Hah, I thought not. Well, let me tell you something, animal: I can lift off a drone bomber and send it right over that site, right over your camp, right over any shelter, and bomb you out of existence. All by remote! You're not as safe as you think, animal!”

Jonnie just stood there, looking at the blank, black windows of the tank as the words avalanched through the intercom.

“You, animal,” snarled Terl, “are going to mine that gold and you're going to deliver that gold and you are going to do it all by Day 91. And if you don't I’ll blast you and all animals on this planet to hell, you hear me, to hell!” His voice ended in a shriek of hysteria and he stopped, panting.

“And when Day 91 comes, and we've done it?” said Jonnie.

Terl barked a sharp, hysterical laugh.

He felt he really had to get control of himself. He sensed he was acting strangely. “Then you get paid!” he shouted.