nd distant thunder. There were
flashings like lightning in the cloud which now enveloped the mountain's
top.

Cochrane made an indescribable small sound. He stared at the ship. As
explosion-waves passed over the ground, a faint, unanimous movement of
the treetops became visible. It seemed to Cochrane that the space-ship
wavered as if about to fall from its upright position.

It was not designed to stand such violence as a fall would imply. Its
hull would be dented or rent. It was at least possible that its
fuel-store would detonate. But even if its fall were checked by
still-standing trees about it, it could never take off again. The eight
humans of its company could never juggle it back to a vertical position.
Rocket-thrust would merely push it in the direction its nose pointed.
Toppled, its rocket-thrust would merely shove it blindly over stones and
trees and to destruction.

The ship swayed again. Visibly. Ground-waves made its weight have the
effect of blows. Part of its foundation rested on almost-visible stone,
only feet below the ground-level. But one of the landing-fins rested on
humus. As the shocks passed, that fin-foot sank into the soft soil. The
space-ship leaned perceptibly.

Flying creatures darted back and forth above the tree-tops. Miles away,
insensate violence reigned. Clouds of dust and smoke shot miles into the
air, and half a mountainside glowed white-hot, and there was the sound
of long-continued thunder, and the ground shook and quivered....

There were movements nearby. A creature with yellow fur and the shape of
a bear with huge ears came padding out of the forest. It swarmed up the
bare stone of the hill on which Babs and Cochrane stood.

It ignored them. Halfway up the unwooded part of the hill, it stopped
and made plaintive, high-pitched noises. Other creatures came. Many had
come while the man and girl were too absorbed to notice. Now two more of
the large animals came out into the open and climbed the hill.

Babs said shakily:

"Do you--think they'll--do you think--"

There was a nearer roaring. The space-ship leaned, and leaned....
Cochrane's lips tensed.

The space-ship's rockets bellowed and a storm of hurtling smoke flashed
up around it. It lifted, staggering as its steering-jets tried
frantically to swing its lower parts underneath its mass. It lurched
violently, and the rockets flamed terribly. It lifted again. Its tail
was higher than the trees, but it did not point stra