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ating from the fire-stone, a coiled clay bowl

containing a cake of animal fat with a wick made from twisted strands

of wild flax to which small pieces of kindling could be added. The

fire-stone was solely to provide a source of illumination and a small

amount of heat; cooking was a communal activity conducted in the open

air and supervised by the female clan-elders. Mutes were remarkably

adept at lighting fires by the rod and bow method and every adult

carried a small supply of dry tinder. If a torrential down-pour made a

fire impractical, the clan contended itself with dried or uncooked

food.

Even if Night Fever's appearance had been more appetising, Steve would

still not have wanted her to move into his hut. And he would not have

wanted Clearwater to take up residence either. After dark was the only

time he could count on being alone and undisturbed.

On the first night in his new quarters, while the rest of the

settlement slumbered peacefully, he removed one of the two pieces of

wood that made up the handle of his knife, to expose the microcircuitry

inside. With the aid of the tiny stylus provided he keyed in a message

for the back-up group to relay to Grand Central. The system could

store up to five thousand words even though transmissions were rarely

of such lengths. As each letter was keyed in, the words appeared in

small black letters on a bronze-grey strip that made up the

thirty-character liquid crystal display.

Once the message was complete, the entire text could be scrolled across

the window at normal reading speed.

It could also be stopped at any point to make insertions or

deletions.

By pressing another miniature key, the message could be automatically

encoded then transmitted by means of yet another single-stroke

command.

A day/date timer allowed the transceiver to be switched on and off at

pre-set intervals to send, receive, and store messages - rather like a

telephone answering machine.

By reversing the procedure, incoming messages that had been

automatically recorded and transferred to memory could be retrieved,

decoded and read off the display whenever it was safe to do so. The

normal range, depending on the terrain, was thirty to fifty miles; this

could be doubled with the aid of a filament aerial stored on a tiny

spool inside the knife handle.

Steve's first text consisted of a brief account of his reinstatement as

a semi-permanent house-guest of the clan M'Call and the news that

Cadillac and Clearwater had departed the settlement sometime in

November. He was careful not to tell Karlstrom where, or why, they had

gone, or the type of transportation they'd used to get there. He had

enough problems without handing the Family another stick to beat him

with. He limited himself to reporting their absence and the date they

were expected to reappear adding that, while no explanation had been

offered, he believed that they had probably been despatched as

emissaries to the other Plainfolk clans in the hope of creating a joint

force to resist the wagon-trains.

Since Karlstrom had expressed concern at the prospect that just such a

move might already be underway, Steve knew his report was unlikely to

be questioned.

On the following night, Steve found Karlstrom's reply stored in the

transceiver's memory. Steve was to stay with the clan until Cadillac

and Clearwater returned. He was to make no move against Mr Snow.

Operation SQUAREDANCE would be put on hold until further notice. In

the meantime, wagon-trains and TrailBlazer teams would not mount

fire-sweeps in the area now occupied by the M'Calls.

In a second transmission, Steve reported the capture of the renegades

and their probable fate. Karlstrom responded by asking him to monitor

events as closely as he could, stressing it was vital that he passed on

every scrap of information he could gather about the Iron Masters

something he had intended to do anyway in order to satisfy his own

curiosity.

Steve's first outings were on local hunting trips then, when he had

demonstrated a reasonable level of prowess, he was invited to go

further afield in the hunt for buffalo and on patrols of the dan's

turf- the limits of which were indicated by decorated marker poles.

It was now the first quarter of the Mute Year. The months of March,

April, and May were known as the Time of the New Earth. As the days

went by Steve noticed a marked increase in his powers of endurance.