Booce said, "The steam pushes both ways. Out the nozzle, and backward too. That churns the water so more water comes down the pipe. After the rocket settles down, it's thrust that pulls the water through. The back-pressure holds it from going in too fast. You can let the rocket run till the water's almost gone."

Cariot said, "You've got to let the pipefire die before the tank's empty. Otherwise you'll char the nozzle and the tank both. It's a mess if you have to throw water on a pipefire."

The storm was definitely reaching out to enfold the tree . . . and the jungle was closer too. Booce pointed. "Carlot-"

Cariot looked. "Happyfeet?"

"Maybe. Debby, what have we got for weapons?"

"Harpoons. The rocket, I guess."

"Not enough. All right, ladies. Maybe it's just a loose jungle, and even if it's happyfeet they may not have noticed anything, but I think we should hide."

"Hide?" Debby was outraged. "Booce, that's not much of a jungle. Carther States was twenty times that size."

The jungle was closer now, a fuzzy green ellipsoid with a shadowy slit in it, as if foliage had been shorn away to form a window into the interior. Booce said, "A jungle that size can hold a family of twenty or thirty. Debby, a tree is big. We can vanish into cracks in the bark and never be seen. I ... think we've got time. Help me take the rocket apart."

"Booce, it was tough enough putting it together!"

"You think I like this?" But Booce and Cariot were already tugging at pipe and nozzle, and Debby perforce joined them.

"The pipe is ... priceless. We ... can't let happyfeet ... get it." Booce gasped in the thin air. The nozzle jerked loose and tumbled along the bark with Booce wrapped around it. His voice drifted back. "The rest they can have. We'll hide the pipe in some crack and guard it. Now we really won't have time to make cabins."

They pulled loose the pipe and water tank. The green puffball was closer yet, and a line of vapor trailed behind it. The vapor trail became a curve . . .

Debby said, "It's dropped five men. Winged. Now it's going away."

Nozzle and tank floated, slowly rotating. Now Booce was free to look. "They're making for the Wart."

"We can't let them have it!" Debby cried.

"Well, the truth is, we can," Booce said. He was pushing the pipe ahead of him, kicking hard. Cariot and Debby flew to help. "Maybe the CARM can take it back for us. If not ... we don't need the Wart to reach the Clump. Those five that were dropped are after us."

. The log was far east, drifting in the fringe of a storm complex. Rather found it before Jeffer did: shadow backlit by the sun.