Debby snatched at the" net bag (six was a nice day's catch), kicked herself into the sky, and began reeling her line in. She was first to reach the Scientist. Clave and Minya and Mark the Silver Man were leaving the pond, reeling in lines. Gavving had stayed to gather the children.

Four tethers led to the corners of the sheet-covered net, which was now deep underwater. Lawri stationed them along the main tether as they arrived. "Gather it in," she directed them. "Make loops. Steady pull."

Debby wrapped her toes and her fingers around the cable, and did her savage best to contract her body. No loop formed. She knew she wasn't as strong as a tree dweller, but the others were having trouble too.

Lawn called, "Good! It's coming straight out."

That was not obvious to Debby. She strained . . . and gradually the pond bulged. The sheet and its net backing were rising, carrying tons of water. Debby pulled until her knees and elbows met, then shifted her grip and continued pulling.

The pond stretched, and tore. A baby pond pulled clear, leaving a trail of droplets the size of a man's head. Water flowed over the edges of the cloth but was not lost, for surface tension held it. The main pond pulsed as surface tension tried to form the sphere again.

"Keep pulling!" Lawri shouted. "Steady . . . okay.

That should do it."

The citizens relaxed. The bud-pond continued to move east on its own momentum, toward the tree, with the net and sheet now in the middle of a pulsing sphere.

Debby coiled line that was now slack. Glancing toward the trunk, she saw what the curve of the pond had hidden earlier.

Parallel to the trunk and many klomters beyond it floated a slender dark line. A young tree, no more than thirty klomters long, and injured; for the in tuft was missing, chopped away somehow. The view was confusing, for the midtrunk was wreathed in cloud . . . dark, dirty cloud . . . smoke!

Debby tugged abruptly at another line. The motion set her drifting toward the Chairman. Clave caught her ankle as she arrived. "Something?"

Debby pointed with her toes. "That tree. It's on fire!"

"... I believe you're right. Treefodder! It'll be coming apart. Two fires to worry about."

Debby had never seen a tree break in half, but Clave spoke from dreadful experience. They might have to move the tree. It would take time to get the CARM ready-

Clave had already thought that far. His voice became a whipcrack roar. "Citizens, it's getting toward dinnertime, and we've got all these waterbirds. Let's break up the swim."

His voice dropped. "You go now, Debby. Tell Jeffer we may need the CARM. We'll get the women and children down into the tuft, if we've got time. Your eyes are better than mine. Do you see anything leaving the tree?

Like clouds of insects?"

There were black specks, big enough to show detail. "Not insects. Something bigger . . . three, four . . . birds?"