Blade didn't get a pistol or a machete, but before nightfall he did find all the water he could possibly use.

The twilight was deepening steadily as Blade tramped along. It was time to start looking for a safe place to spend the night. Should he climb a tree or risk staying on the ground? Most of the trees here were solid and climbable, but their lowest branches were far overhead and he didn't know what might hide up there in the green-tinted shadows. On the ground he'd be vulnerable to anything that wandered by, but he'd seen no traces of anything large enough to be dangerous, not even snakes.

As he walked, Blade argued with himself and listened for the slightest sound that might help him decide one way or the other. The noises of the jungle now seemed to be fading away along with the light. The creatures of the day were falling asleep, and the creatures of the night weren't awake yet.

In this near-silence Blade suddenly heard the unmistakable splashing of water off to the left. He stopped, listening carefully. Gradually he recognized the sound as a stream running over stones, rather than some large animal splashing in the water.

Blade turned toward the sound and moved forward, darting from one tree to the next, listening from behind each one like a soldier sneaking up on an enemy camp. He suspected he might be exactly that. If the hunting parties hadn't left this stretch of jungle entirely, the bank of a stream was the most likely place to find them camped for the night.

Finally glade came out from behind the last tree onto the bank of the stream. What he'd heard was a short stretch of rapids, as a stream flowed out of one pool, plunged down a thirty-foot bluff, and spread out into another pool. Dead leaves and twigs covered the water close to the banks, but in the center of the pools it was clear, dark, and almost still. There was no sign that anything human had ever passed this way.