I squawked like a space-happy maniac as a tusk ripped into my oversuit. I tumbled into the air and bounced through the branches of the nearby vinetree. Hanging stunned in a snarl of creepers, I heard sharp cracks from Toal's firearm. The Hog squealed in rage. "Run, Toal!" I wheezed. "He's pellet-proof!" The Hog stopped squealing. Mud splashed and brush broke. "Ube Kinlock," Toal cried, "where are you?" Her cries became a mourning wail. I heard her stumbling in the undergrowth. "Up here," I groaned. "Up here." "Oh! Don't move. May have broken bones. Found your lantern." A light flashed across the road and countryside, then moved up the tree. "Badly injured?" Toal called. Dangling in the vines, I became aware that I throbbed and burned all over. "Don't think so," I said. "He tossed me." The light swayed. Toal crouched on a broad, living rope slightly above me. She unclipped the light from the neck of her sack and held it close to me. "Anything broken?" she asked. "I don't know," I moaned. "How can anything so big move that fast?" "You are scratched and bruised." Toal pulled apart a long rip in my oversuit. "Side is bleeding," she said. "Have to get you down." "What about the Hog?" "Ran. You hurt him, Kinlock. Blood on the road." "Probably mine. A hundred pellets!" I sighed. "He kept coming." "Said hissers won't stop him. Must cut that vine around your ankle." Toal put her hand to the back of her neck and pulled it away clutching a small knife. She sawed at the vines. Far away, the Hog grunted, but the sounds had a new, bubbling quality. Toal said, "Going back to the swamp." I said, "He can talk. He told me he would eat me." XI: SIXDAY NIGHT At about 26:30 o'clock, according to Toal, we crawled under the electric wires across the road and reached the walls of Joetropolis. The Young Farmer School had refused to open its gates because of six different Ordinances. Most of the clouds had cleared away, but the dark nebula hung dim and threatening overhead. While Toal searched for a signal button, I--a collapsing hulk of cuts, bruises, tatters, and disgust--sat in the road. With one foot, the Hog had wrecked ten x-tops, three coupons worth of robotic. I had been unable to find the hisser. The only whole pieces of equipment that we recovered were the light, a water pump, the sniffer, one can of S-rations, and a tube of pellets. Lights suddenly spotted us. A man loudly intoned, "Why break Ordinance 921?" "This is Recessive Betty Toal and Alien Hunter Ube Kinlock," Toal said. "Open the gate!" The man said, "Not till morning. The Hog might enter." Toal said, "The Hog is in the swamp. Kinlock wounded him. Kinlock should see a doctor. We've walked seventeen miles. Throw us a rope, if you won't open the gate." Then a voice that I recognized spoke. "Let them climb up," ordered the shuttle pilot, Olaf Ypsilanti. "Want to discuss this matter with them."