another reason I wanted to take a copter," explained Nuwell,
releasing the air from the copter's interior. "There aren't any roads to
this place, and I didn't want to drive a groundcar across the desert to
bring Kensington's body here."

They emerged from the copter as the group from the building approached.
Nuwell greeted the five of them and introduced them to Maya. Four of
them were strangers to her, but the fifth she remembered: Goat
Hennessey, white-bearded and watery-eyed.

"How are you adjusting to your new work here, Dr. Hennessey?" Nuwell
asked him.

"Very well," answered Goat in his cracked voice. "They're using a
different approach from mine, but I find it extremely interesting."

Remembering Goat's earlier experiments at Ultra Vires, it occurred to
Maya to be grateful that Dark had not fallen alive into the hands of
these people at the Canfell Hydroponic Farm.

Their entire stop lasted only a few minutes. Nuwell refused an
invitation to remain overnight, explaining that he was anxious to get on
to Mars City. The others unloaded Dark's coffin and moved with it back
toward the building. Nuwell and Maya climbed back into the copter, and
shortly they were airborne again and the buildings of the Canfell
Hydroponic Farm were receding behind and below them.

Nuwell guided the copter almost straight westward now. It passed over
Candor and buzzed out over the broad Xanthe Desert.

And here trouble developed. Without warning, the engine coughed and
stopped. Nuwell worked frantically at the controls, to no avail. As the
big blades slowed in their rotation, the copter sank, slowly at first,
then ever more swiftly, to the surface of the desert. They donned
marshelmets hurriedly.

It struck with a terrific crash, which would have hurled them through
the windows had they not been strapped down. The entire body of the
copter crumpled in on itself, and it came to rest, a collapsed wreck,
with the two of them sitting in its midst, miraculously uninjured.

There was no question of trying to start the engines or fly the machine.
It was a total wreck. Nuwell tried the radio without success.

"What in space went wrong with the thing?" he demanded angrily. "I know
it wasn't short of fuel. There's nothing left for us to do but walk, I'm
afraid, Maya."

"Back to the hydroponic farm?"

"No, we've come too far. By my chart, we're not far from Ultra Vires. I
think we'd better try to make it for the night, and if Goat lef