ket, and as they
looked, a dim figure could be seen staggering away from the side of the
other rocket, coming slowly toward them.

"Good Lord!" Mathieson breathed. "What's that man doing out there? He
could have been killed!"

Then suddenly they saw the staggering figure stumble on the ground.

And then Trent and the others were racing across the ground to the side
of the fallen man.

When they reached him, Mathieson came forward and knelt beside the
figure.

"Why, it's one of the guards!" he said in shocked surprise.

And it was then that the strange feeling of foreboding hit Fred again.
As he knelt beside the groaning guard, it swept over him in a chilling
wave. He lifted the man's head from the ground and the guard opened his
eyes. He recognized the face of Mathieson as the scientist looked
anxiously in his direction.

"Good heavens, man, what happened? You were ordered to leave five
minutes before launching time!"

The guard's mouth opened as he struggled to a sitting position. The
man's hand reached up and touched the back of his head painfully.

"Sir--Gaddon--Dr. Gaddon attacked me ..."

There was a momentary stunned silence as the soldier's words sunk in on
the gathered men.

"_What?_" Mathieson's voice was incredulous.

And as Trent watched the soldier nod his head, the suspicion he had felt
suddenly overwhelmed him in a grim realization. Even as the soldier
blurted out pain-filled words, Trent knew somehow what he was going to
say.

"Gaddon--he pulled a gun on me ... He forced me to the far side of
number two--he said he was going up in the rocket--he said he had
plans--then he hit me with the gun ... I came to when the rocket went
off--I was away from the blasts, luckily ..."

Then the soldier was standing on his feet again, swaying as he fought to
clear his fogged senses.

But Trent was no longer aware of the soldier. And he saw that Mathieson
was no longer looking at the guard. For a brief instant their eyes met,
and Trent saw a stunned look in the scientist's, then Fred's gaze swept
up into the night. Up into the darkened sky where, miles above them, the
hurtling rocket was even now reaching the apex of its flight.

Up where a man rode on a perilous trip into the unknown.

* * * * *

Gaddon hunched in the darkness of the rocket, waiting. He had counted
the remaining minutes off, one by one. And he knew that finally the
moment was at hand.

It would be