Mia said with incredulity: "Look at their left shoulders. See that scar. The fern leaf! That's Hal Bemmelman's brand! Cosmo, those are Bemmelman's slaves!" The blue giants crouched. Their violet eyes were passionless, their handsome faces calm, inscrutable. "Back!" Cosmo suddenly shouted in a tone of authority, and took a step toward them. A low snarl rumbled in their throats. Then like cats on a mouse, they pounced. Mia screamed. Cosmo kicked one of them in the belly, heard him grunt. With balled fist he swung at the placid handsome features of the second blue giant. Pain, like a hot iron, shot up his arm from his bruised knuckles. The Jovian shook his head, grabbed Cosmo's wrist, jerked. His arm felt as if it were being torn from the socket. He kicked, slugged the emotionless face with his free hand. The grip never relaxed. He heard Mia scream again like a rabbit in a steel trap. Then the Jovian clouted him brutally alongside the temple with his open fist. Cosmo's head snapped sideways like a punching bag. His knees collapsed. He seemed to be falling into the chasm of the waterfall, down, down into stygian blackness. IV Cosmo gradually became aware of a jolting swaying movement. At each jolt, a flash of pain shot across his eyes. He sat up, cracked his skull against something solid. A blinding pain jolted him into full consciousness. He was in a cage, he saw, swung on poles like a litter between two of the blue giants. They were jogging along through a forest. At once he became aware of warmth along his side, twisted his head. Mia was regarding him from wide frightened eyes. They'd been tumbled side by side into the cage. The girl was almost naked, her yellow tunic in tatters. "You hurt?" he asked. She shook her head. He closed his eyes against the ache in his skull. If the pain would only let up. His mind felt fuzzy, his thoughts incoherent. "Whew. That brute sure gave me a wallop. What happened?" He could feel Mia shiver against him. "It was dreadful," she said. "They grabbed me--_ugh!_--and stuffed me in this cage. They had it hidden outside on the trail from the Ormoo's nest. Then they dumped you in on top of me like a bag of flour. I--I thought you were dead." "So did I," said Cosmo dryly. She regarded him dubiously, said: "They picked up the cage then and began to run down the trail. They carried us over the most impossible places, always down. I died with fright. Just a little while ago we came out into the forest." "I know the trail," he said. "Nothing but Jovian primitives could have managed it. I wonder why Bemmelman didn't have me killed outright." "Bemmelman?" Mia looked puzzled. "Sure. They're his slaves. You saw the fern leaf brand on their shoulders. We walked straight into a trap." "But that's impossible. How could they have found your hideout?"