im. There is some effect,
of course. You're probably carrying fifty extra pounds."

"Huh!" Luke hoped it would be no worse.

Fuller slipped into a narrow crevasse that ran slantwise of the slope
and extended upward to the rim of the pit. The going was much easier
here and they made rapid progress toward the top. Suddenly Luke realized
that it was growing very cold; there was a bite to the foul air, and
moisture from the red mist was frosting his beard. The liberation of the
tiny planet and consequent shifting of the terminator was bringing
frigidity to Vulcan's Workshop.

They came up out of the crevasse at the top of the pit and Luke could
not resist looking back. Every convict in sight was flattened to the
ground. They sprawled singly and in heaps, each one a squashed inert
thing that would not move again until the neutro-broadcast was
discontinued. The guards, confident they would find the escaped
prisoners in like condition, were searching the slope below them.

Luke raised Chan Dai's, dart gun to his shoulder.

Fuller struck aside the muzzle of the weapon. "No!" he protested, "No
unnecessary killing, Fenton. They're completely fooled, and we'll be
well on our way before they know the truth."

Grumbling, Luke drew back from the rim of the excavation.

* * * * *

Up here the ground was fairly level, but there were many fissures and
small craters which made the footing precarious. The mists were so dense
they could see scarcely two hundred feet ahead.

"We'll be lost in the vapors when they finally wake up and come out
after us," Fuller said. "And look Fenton, off there to the left are the
three columns of fire that mark the rendezvous."

They plunged on through the red mist toward the flaming pillars. Those
beacons, even though they subsided at regular intervals, quickly
reappeared after each cessation. And their brilliance penetrated the
mists with ease at this distance of about two miles. There was no fear
of missing their destination.

"Sure your friends'll be there?" Luke asked doubtingly. He was beginning
to have some misgivings about the matter--the scientist had been
anything but explicit as to who these friends were. And the longer his
thoughts dwelt upon the things Fuller had told him the more suspicious
he became. Pretty cagey about everything but the actual getting away
from the Workshop, Fuller had been.

"Certainly they will; they've been waiting two