A worried Johnny was standing in the center of the clearing once more, surrounded by the little jewel bears. He now knew this was the grove council, a group of the wisest bears of the grove. Keetack's gift to Johnny had impressed them all. They knew it meant that Keetack trusted Johnny. Yet they were cautious. Johnny's knowledge of them could be very dangerous.

"It is not right he should go," one of the marva was saying. His muzzle was still blue, and Johnny knew this meant he was younger than the rest. "The young killer will return to his people and tell of our ways and of our houses in the trees. Then the older killers will come with their death-spitting things and our lives will be gone. I think that we should hold him here. Otherwise we risk the lives of our people."

Johnny put up his hand as if he were in school. The marva, Keetack, of the deep black muzzle, pointed at Johnny.

"May I talk now?" Johnny asked. The marva nodded. "I won't tell anything you don't want me to," he promised earnestly. "With these claws I'm sure Baba can be saved, but I'm going to have to hurry. If the outlaws get him they will kill him sure. Don't you understand?"

"We understand," the old marva answered. "But we must be sure of safety for us and our people. Your people are killers like the beasts of the sea. You even kill each other. You are a strange people. Still you risked your life for your friend Baba, just as Baba would risk his. Your friend with the red fur risked his life to help you. Do you really think that if your people knew all there is to know about us, they would not come with the fire spitting things?"

Johnny was silent. He knew Ed would come. He knew Trader Harkness would, too. He swallowed, for lying to these little bears was something he just couldn't do.

"For those claws some of my people would do anything," he clicked in a low voice.

There was complete silence in the grove.

The marva who was young and still blue furred about the muzzle stood again. Johnny wanted to cry. He had condemned Baba to death, but if he hadn't done so, maybe all the marva would be killed. He felt they, too, were his brothers. He broke into sobs and stood there with tears running down his cheeks.

"We have heard our young friend," the blue-furred marva said. It was the first time he had not called Johnny a killer. "He gave us the truth because we have trusted him, and treated him with friendship. I was wrong. He is to be trusted. Let him go from here with his gifts. My tree, too, will send a gift. But let him promise to keep secret anything he thinks may be dangerous to us." The marva seated himself.

"Oh, I promise," Johnny said solemnly. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"It is agreed among us then?" Keetack asked the group. The furry heads nodded their agreement. "Young friend, you may go. Your settlement is three groves away from us. You may have a rhinosaur to ride. It will take you home with time to spare. You go with a pledge of peace. We will send messages ahead and no animals will attack you. Nor will any of our friends attack any man unless he attacks first. You may tell your people we will give them more claws for such things as we would like from them. Every two years we marva get a new set of claws and teeth. The old ones have been saved from generation to generation to be used for lights and for tools. You may also tell the leaders of your people we would like to meet with them. Perhaps we can make a friendship that will endure!"

Johnny had a busy hour ahead of him. First he ran to see Rick among the sick animals in the other part of the grove. There was no question of Rick's coming with him. He was still too sick from the arrow-bird's wound, but he was definitely on the mend. He was lying under a tree, petting the leopard cubs. Johnny told him what had happened, carefully omitting where the marva lived, and Rick became more and more interested. Finally Johnny showed him one of the packets of claws that he had been given. By now the packets had grown to over a dozen, and he had placed them in a bag made from his shirt.

"Johnny," Rick said, "you've done a most wonderful thing! Those marva don't have to worry about being hunted any more. If people can get so many of those claws and teeth, no one will ever want to hunt for them again. You tell them that, for me."

Johnny rushed to give the news to the marva. The first one he found was the young council member who had at first opposed letting him go.

"It pays to trust one another," the marva said simply.

Soon Johnny was ready. The leader of the council brought before him a huge rhinosaur, one of the biggest Johnny had ever seen.

"Skorkin knows he must obey you," Keetack said. "He will do anything you ask, and will harm none of your people."

"Hello, friend-pet," Johnny said.

The rhinosaur turned and looked at him with his little blue-black eyes and grunted a greeting. Johnny noted it. It probably meant "hello."

"Was that his speech?" Johnny asked.

"Yes," Keetack answered. "They have more words than the other creatures of the green lands. Only the monkeys of all our friend-pets come near to being as smart as they. They are a people, too, of great courage."

"I know," Johnny said. He remembered the rhinosaur charge at the colony.

At the mention of the word "monkey," the little red ape whom Johnny had rescued from Ed began to chatter and jump up and down.

"He likes you and wishes to go with you," Keetack said. "Do you want him to?"

"Oh, yes," Johnny answered. The monkey leaped to his shoulder. Johnny suddenly had an idea. "Could the leopardess, her cubs, and the arrow-bird come too?" he asked. "That is, if they want to?"

Keetack understood what was in Johnny's mind and nodded his approval. "It is a good idea," he clicked. "It would be a good way to prove to your people that the animals can be friendly."

The leopardess was suddenly beside Johnny, rubbing up against him like a big cat. She looked up into his face and growled in the way that Johnny knew meant "come."

Johnny looked at the wrist watch. "We do have to hurry."

He threw the bagful of the precious claws over his shoulder, and stepped toward the rhinosaur. "How'm I going to get on?" he asked, with sudden surprise.

A series of grunts came from the rhinosaur, that sounded something like laughter. Then it lay its horned snout upon the ground, and grunted again.

"Climb on," Keetack said.

Grasping one of the long snout horns, Johnny climbed aboard his strange mount.

"Goodbye," he shouted. All around hundreds of the marva were hanging from their trees. They waved and he waved back. "Let's go!" he clicked to the rhinosaur.

And so began the race through the jungle. The great rhinosaur moved forward with thundering speed, the leopardess and her cubs loping along beside them. When one of the cubs grew tired it leaped on to the rhinosaur's back, curled up beside Johnny and went peacefully to sleep. The arrow-bird perched on one of the beast's horns and the monkey beside it. They did not stop for rain or rivers. Everywhere the jungle seemed to have blossomed forth with animals, who waved and grunted, growled, clicked, or sang greetings to them as they went past.

The broad back of the rhinosaur was a perfect place to travel, Johnny found. It swayed hardly as much as a helicopter and bounced much less than a tank. It was not long until Johnny had followed the leopard cub's example. He found a hollow in the big back, curled up and went to sleep, lulled by the steady swinging movement and the thunder of the rhinosaur's hooves.

Johnny woke with a start. The monkey was pulling on one of his ears; they had reached the settlement. Johnny glanced down at his watch. He had slept six hours.

The rhinosaur had stopped right at the edge of the meat tree grove that bordered the settlement. Through the screen of trees Johnny could see the high grey walls. It was about half a mile to the gate. Johnny wiped the sleep out of his eyes and puzzled as to the best way of making his appearance.

"Go that way," Johnny clicked, and pointed. "But stay where you can't be seen from the walls." At a slow trot, the rhinosaur carried them to a place directly in front of the gate to the settlement wall. Johnny saw that the gate had been repaired. Beside it was a steel door through which a single man could be admitted.

"You wait here for me," he said to the animals. "Let me down, friend rhinosaur." He tied his bag of claws to the rhinosaur's horn and then walked down the huge head to the ground. The arrow-bird flew over and lit on his shoulder. It had not understood. "Wait," Johnny repeated. "Wait, I will come back."

The rhinosaur wandered a few yards away and began to munch on some bushes. The leopard growled to her cubs and began to climb a meat tree in search of food. Johnny smiled. They were good friends to have.

Johnny slipped through the bushes and trees until only one antelope berry bush was between him and the wall. The guard tower was directly in front of him. The men in the tower must have noticed the swaying of the bushes, for they were looking directly toward the spot where Johnny stood.

Johnny slipped from behind the bush and stepped into full view. He smiled and waved jauntily to the guards. As casually as he could he started toward the door. Halfway there he began to skip for sheer joy. The guards were staring at him open-mouthed. Obviously he had no armor on. He had had to use his shirt to make the bag for the claws. The only clothes he wore was the baggy pair of shorts Rick had made him.

The steel door at the base of the guard tower opened at his touch. He closed it carefully, opened the inner door and then climbed the stairs to the guard tower, instead of going straight into the colony. There, too, were double doors.

"Hello," he said, as he entered.

The three guards on duty were so surprised they couldn't speak for a second. One of them was Old Jeb. Before they recovered, Johnny went up to Jeb. "Would you call my father, Jeb, and tell him to come to the gate?" It was funny to watch their faces.

"Johnny, you're safe!" Jeb suddenly exploded. He swept the boy into his arms and swung him about. He stopped, pushed the boy away from him, and tousled his hair. "I can't believe it, but you're safe!"

"Sure am," Johnny said, with a grin. Then he became serious. "How is Baba? Is he all right?"

"He's been kind of sad and upset, poor little feller," Jeb said. "But how in thunder did you get here? Last we heard you were being held for ransom. Your folks have been worried sick."

"Oh, I got away from the outlaws and some friends brought me. Please call everybody in the colony, will you? Tell them to come to the gate. I have something important to show them. I've got to go back out to my friends now. 'Bye." He started toward the door.

"Friends! What friends?" Jeb called.

"You'll find out," Johnny said, with a laugh.

"Hey, you can't go outside without armor," one of the other guards shouted. But Johnny had slipped out before he could be stopped. He took the stairs at a run, and was out of the heavy steel wall doors before the men could follow him.

As he skipped across the open space back to the jungle, he turned his head, waved to the men in the tower, and smiled.

"Come back here, you little devil!" Jeb shouted through the loudspeaker the guards used to guide tanks in.

But Johnny shook his head and went back into the brush.

Johnny waited for about ten minutes. All this time the loudspeaker in the tower was shouting for Johnny to come back in. Finally the voice changed. It was Johnny's father's voice.

"Johnny," his father said over the speaker. "Come on in here! Please! I'm here now. Johnny!"

Johnny heard a tank starting up inside. He didn't want any tanks coming after him.

"Come on, friends," he clicked to the animals. He climbed back up on the rhinosaur's back. The leopard came running up with her cubs. The arrow-bird and the monkey, taking no chances, followed behind them, leaped to its usual perch—the top of Johnny's head.

"Let's go!" Johnny clicked to the rhinosaur. "Walk very slowly out toward the big black place."

Johnny clicked to one of the cubs to jump up on the rhinosaur's back beside him. Johnny crawled to the broad head of the rhinosaur between two of its horns. The leopard cub sat on its haunches beside him. The mother leopard and the other cub ran alongside them. The rhinosaur's hooves made muffled thunder as he walked.

A big grin on his face, and waving his hand, Johnny emerged from the jungle into full sight of his father, Jeb, and many others inside the guard tower.

"Stop when we get a little way from the door," Johnny said to the rhinosaur. The big beast grunted its understanding.

Johnny and his friends came to a halt close enough to the tower so that Johnny's voice could be heard.

"Open the gate, please," Johnny shouted. "We want to come inside." He saw his father's startled face above him. "Hello, Dad. How's Mom? Did she worry too much?"

"Hello, son." His father's voice was shocked. "Your mother is all right." He paused. "Where did you.... How did you...?"

"You mean the animals?" Johnny asked, rather enjoying the effect he was making. "Oh, they're friends of mine. You can let us in. They won't hurt anybody. I'm bringing a present to pay for Baba and make up for all the harm we did. Look." He took a packet of the claws and opened it. He let a handful of the claws run out of one hand into the other in a shining blue waterfall. Through the microphone he could hear his father and the other men gasp.

"Come in here quick," Frederick Watson's voice came back over the loudspeaker.

"Open the gates, please," Johnny repeated.

"But the rhinosaur! And the leopard!"

"They're friends of mine. They brought me here. They won't hurt anybody. I promise."

The big steel gate slowly opened. Riding on the back of one of the greatly feared rhinosaurs, Johnny entered the colony.

It seemed that everyone in the colony had heard of Johnny's strange return. Pioneers—men, women and children, hunters and guards—were hurrying toward the big gate. At the sight of the rhinosaur, a woman screamed and the crowd ran, scattering in all directions.

Captain Thompson, two other colonists and a hunter held their ground, their ato-tube pistols out.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Johnny shouted. Beneath him the rhinosaur trembled. "He won't hurt you. He's our friend." He stroked the arrow-bird on his shoulder. "Look! Even an arrow-bird!"

Slowly the ato-tube pistols that had been leveled at them were lowered. Hesitantly, one or two of the people began to move back toward the little group.

A woman came running toward Johnny. It was his mother. Tears were running down her face. Even she was finally stopped by the bewildering sight of her son surrounded by jungle animals.

"Let me down," Johnny clicked to the rhinosaur. The big animal lowered his head. A cry went up from the people as the leopardess bounded after him. Johnny threw his arms about his mother.

"Oh, Johnny, Johnny!" his mother said over and over, holding him tight against her armor. She stiffened as the mother leopard rubbed against them and the arrow-bird lit, for a moment, on her shoulder.

"Mother, I want you to meet my friends," Johnny said. "This is Mona, the leopardess, and her two cubs, Pat and Mike. And this is Skimpy, the monkey. I haven't named my arrow-bird yet." Then he spoke to the animals. "This is my mother."

Johnny's mother stood there a moment, too bewildered to speak. The leopardess licked her hand. Then Johnny led his mother to the rhinosaur.

"This is my friend Skorkin, the rhinosaur. He gave me a ride all the way here. Isn't he beautiful?" Then he clicked to the rhinosaur, "This is my mother."

The huge creature grunted.

"Skorkin said 'hello,'" Johnny said.

Her eyes wide with the strangeness of it all, Johnny's mother nodded a wordless greeting to the creature.

Just then Johnny heard a sound he had been waiting for. It was the sound of a basketball dropped from a height. He looked up to see Baba bounding along as fast as he could come. Johnny was off at a dead run to meet him, leaving his mother and the other animals behind.

The two of them met at top speed, and they met with such impact that both were tumbled to the ground in a heap of arms, legs, boy and bear. Both of them were laughing when they got to their feet.

"Oh, Baba, you bad little bear!" Johnny said. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"And I!" Baba said.

"You shouldn't have come back here!" Johnny said. "I'll have to punish you right now!" He grabbed Baba suddenly by the leg, whirled him around and around above his head and threw him as high as he could in the air. Throwing his arms around as if frightened to death, the little bear whimpered and clicked. But just before he hit the ground he made himself into a ball, and bounced higher than Johnny had thrown him. Then, on the third bounce, he landed lightly on Johnny's shoulder.

Their delight was cut short by the sight of a fat bald man who glittered as he walked toward the crowd. For an instant Johnny was afraid. It was Trader Harkness. Then he remembered—the trader's days of power were over.

"Mr. Harkness," he called, "I've got something to show you."

"They said you had claws." The trader's little black eyes fixed their gaze on Johnny.

"Come on, I'll show everybody."

The crowd parted for Johnny and Baba and the trader. By this time almost all the colonists and visiting hunters were gathered around the rhinosaur and the leopards. A few bold souls were timidly petting the cubs. Probably of most interest was the arrow-bird. Tired from all its riding, it had put its head under its wing and gone fast asleep, perched on the rhinosaur's horn.

Johnny took the bag he had made from the shirt down from where it hung beside the arrow-bird. He untied it, revealing the many packets made from woven rushes. Packet after packet, he spilled the claws out on to the shirt until there was a great pile of jewels glowing before the people.

"Where did you get them?" Trader Harkness' voice rumbled. He was shocked and pale.

"The marva themselves gave them to me for the colony," Johnny replied. "It's a sign that they and all the animals want to be our friends."

The trader forced his eyes away from the pile of jewels and looked over his shoulder. Johnny was suddenly conscious of three hunters standing behind the trader. Ed and his gang!

"I'll take those claws now," the trader said. The gang whipped out their ato-tubes and leveled them at Johnny and Baba.

The crowd gasped and then fell silent. Johnny's father stepped up, but one of the hunters waved him back with his gun. Johnny saw he'd been wrong. There was plenty of fight left in the trader. He glanced around him; the animals had become very still, waiting his word.

"Friends," Johnny clicked, "stay still. This man is a killer."

Skorkin, the rhinosaur, snorted. The arrow-bird awoke and snapped its head into arrow position. The monkey bared its teeth, while Mona, the leopardess, crouched to spring, the muscles of her haunches trembling.

Johnny saw the trader's eyes widen. The leopard was not three feet away from him. Thinking fast, Johnny stepped carefully over and put a hand on the leopard's shoulder.

"I wouldn't move, Mr. Harkness," Johnny said, his voice quavering in spite of himself. "If you don't tell your gang to give their guns to Captain Thompson, I'll tell the animals to charge. Maybe Ed told you what I made the monkey do?" Johnny's heart raced. It was a bluff. He couldn't tell the animals to charge. He knew they might be killed. No amount of claws would be worth that.

The trader's eyes were fixed on Mona. Then Skorkin snorted again, eager to fight.

The trader turned brick red. "Do what the kid says," he said in a low, strangled voice. The ato-tube in Ed's hand wavered and then came down.

There was a deep sigh of relief from the crowd.

Grimly and quietly, Captain Thompson gathered up the guns. "All right, you men," he said, "there's a room ready for you at the stockade."

The fight was really gone from the trader now. His shoulders slumped, his head down, he shuffled as he was led away.

Johnny's father stepped forward and embraced him.

"I don't understand how you did it, Johnny," he said. "I don't understand anything about it. But this is certainly a wonderful day!"