like gray pillars beneath it; and flung
it. The box catapulted, dropped; and then passing the _Planetara's_
gravity area, it sailed in a long flat arc over the forest glade and
crashed into the purple underbrush.

"Give me another!"

The stewards pushed another at him. Like an angry Titan, he flung it.
And another. One by one the chests sailed out and crashed.

"There is your food. Go pick it up! Haljan, make ready to ring us
away!"

On the deck lay the dead body of Rance Rankin, which the stewards had
carried out. Miko seized it: flung it.

"There! Go to your last resting place!"

And the other bodies, Balch, Blackstone, Captain Carter, Johnson--Miko
flung them all. And the course masters and those of our crew who had
been killed.

The passengers were all on the ground now. It was dim down there. I
tried to distinguish Venza, but could not. I could see Dr. Frank's
figure at the end of the chained line of men. The passengers were
gazing in horror at the bodies hurtling over them.

"Ready, Haljan?"

Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!"

I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemed
so. On the radio room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silent
statues in the blue lit gloom.

The disembarkation was over.

"Close the ports!" Miko commanded.

The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome windows
slid closed. Moa hissed against my ear:

"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!"

Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in the
purple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friends
stood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of the
closed dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancy
pictured this last sight of them, Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and Dud
Ardley.

They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita and myself.

I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding down
below, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_
respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating;
and the gravity plates began shifting into lifting combinations.

The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the grating
of the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command:

"Lift, Haljan!"

Hahn had been mingling with the confusion of the deck though I had
hardly noticed him. Coniston had remained below with the crew
answering my signals. Hah