f you!" Klem Zareff was bellowing. "And get back from
there. Back three or four miles; close enough so they won't dare use
thermonuclears. Take cover behind one of those ridges, where they
can't detect you. Then we can start figuring what the Gehenna to do
next."

That made sense. And get it settled who's in command of this
Donnybrook, while we're at it, Conn thought. He looked into the rear
and sideview screens, and taking cover immediately made even more
sense. Two more fireballs blossomed, one dangerously close to the
_Dragon_. Guns were firing from the mountaintop, too, big ones,
and shells were bursting close to them. He saw a shell land on and
another beside one of the enemy gun positions--115-mm's from the
_Lester Dawes_, he supposed. He continued to cling to the
stanchion, and the _Goblin_ shot straight up, and he was expecting
to see the sky blacken and the stars come out when the gunboat leveled
and started circling down again. The mountainside, he saw, was sending
up a lightning-crackling tower of smoke and dust that swelled into a
mushroom top.

Klem Zareff, on the radio, was demanding to know who'd launched that.

"We did, sir; _Dragon_," Stefan Jorisson was replying. "We had to get
rid of it. We took a hit. Gun turret's smashed, Milt Hennant's dead,
and Abe Samuels probably will be before I'm done talking, and if we
get this crate down in one piece, it'll do for a miracle till a real
one happens."

"Well, be careful how you shoot those things off," his father
implored, from the _Lester Dawes_. "Get one inside the crater and we
won't have any spaceport."

The _Lester Dawes_ vanished behind a mountain range a few miles from
the volcano. The _Dragon_, still airborne but in obvious difficulties,
was limping after her, and the _Vampire_ was covering the withdrawal,
firing rapidly but with doubtful effect with her single 90-mm and
tossing out counter-missiles. There was another fireball between her
and the mountain. Then, when the _Dragon_ had followed the _Lester
Dawes_ to safety, she turned tail and bolted, the _Goblin_ following.
As they approached the mountains, something the shape of a recon-car
and about half the size passed them going in the opposite direction.
As they dropped into the chasm on the other side, another nuclear went
off at the volcano.

When Conn and Fred left the _Goblin_ and boarded the ship, they found
Rodney Maxwell, Captain Poole, and a couple of others on the bridge.
Charley