it vertical, the rocket
lowered gradually. The seats swung level, keeping their occupants right
side up. There was a hovering pause, then the faint jolt of contact. The
jet growl stopped; complete silence closed in like a hammer blow.

"Do you men know where you are?" Rodan asked after a moment.

"At the edge of Mare Nova, I think," Frank answered, his eyes combing
the demons' landscape beyond the thick, darkened glass of the cabin's
ports.

The dazzling sun was low--early morning of two weeks of daylight. The
shadows were long, black shafts.

"Yes--there's Tower Rock," Lester quavered. "And the Arabian Range going
down under the dust of the plain."

"Correct," Rodan answered. "We're well over the rim of the Far Side.
You'll never see the Earth from here. The nearest settlement is eight
hundred miles away, and it's Tovie at that. This is a really remote
spot, as I intimated before."

He paused, as if to let this significant information be appreciated. "So
that's settled," he went on. "Now I'll enlighten you about what else you
need to know... Come along."

Frank Nelsen felt the dust crunch under the rubberized boot-soles of his
Archer. There was a brief walk, then a pause.

Rodan pointed to a pit dynamited out of the dust and lava rock, and to
small piles of greyish material beside six-inch borings rectangularly
spaced over a wide area.

"There is an extensive underlying layer of gypsum, here," he said. "The
water-bearing rock. A mile away there's an ample deposit of
graphite--carbon. Thus, there exists a complete local source of
hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, ideal for synthesizing various
hydrocarbonic chemicals or making complicated polyethylene materials
such as stellene, so useful in space. Lead, too, is not very far off.
Silicon is, of course, available everywhere. There'll be a plant
belonging to Hoffman Chemicals here, before too long. I was prospecting
for them, for a site like this. Actually I was very lucky, locating this
spot almost right away--which is fortunate. They think I'm still
looking, and aren't concerned..."

Rodan was quiet for a moment before continuing. The pupils of his eyes
dilated and contracted strangely.

"Because I found something else," he went on. "It was luck beyond
dreams, and it must be my very own. I intend to investigate it
thoroughly, even if it takes years! Come along, again!"

This time the walk was about three hundred yards, past three small
stellene domes, the par