mming it in; Chet's gaze passed on
to the valley's end.

Down there, where the fires ceased, there would be water; he would land
there! And the ship from Earth slipped down in a long slanting line to
cushion against its under exhausts, whose soft thunder echoed back from
a bare expanse of frozen lava. Then its roaring faded. The silvery shape
sank softly to its rocky bed as Chet cut the motor that had sung its
song of power since the moment when Schwartzmann had carried him
off--taken him from that frozen, forgotten corner of an incredibly
distant Earth.

* * * * *

"Iss there air?" Schwartzmann demanded. Chet came to himself again with
a start: he saw the man peering from the lookout to right and to left as
if he would see all that there was in the last light of day.

"Strange!" he was grumbling to himself. "A strange place! But those
hills--I saw their markings--there will be metals there. I will explore;
later I return: I will mine them. Many ships I must build to establish a
line. The first transportation line of space. Me, Jacob Schwartzmann--I
will do it. I will haff more than anyone else on Earth; I will make them
all come to me crawling on their bellies!"

Chet saw the hard shine of the narrowed eyes. For an instant only, he
dared to consider the chance of leaping upon the big, gloating figure.
One blow and a quick snatch for the pistol!... Then he knew the folly of
such a plan: Schwartzmann's men were armed; he would be downed in
another second, his body a shattered, jellied mass.

Schwartzmann's thoughts had come back to the matter of air; he motioned
Chet and Harkness toward the port.

Diane Delacouer had joined them and she thrust herself quickly between
the two men. And, though Schwartzmann made a movement as if he would
snatch her back, he thought better of it and motioned for the portal to
be swung. Chet felt him close behind as he followed the others out into
the gathering dark.

* * * * *

The air was heavy with the fragrance of night-blooming trees. They were
close to the edge of the lava flow. The rock was black in the light of a
starry sky; it dropped away abruptly to a lower glade. A stream made
silvery sparklings in the night, while beyond it were waving shadows of
strange trees whose trunks were ghostly white.

It was all so familiar.... Chet smiled understandingly as he saw Walt
Harkness' arm go about the trim figure of Dia