ed that this must be farewell.

"Gregg, dear one, we've got to do it!"

Those waiting figures would pounce on us.

"Anita, lie here a moment."

I jumped up and ran twenty feet toward the bow; then back toward the
stern, flinging down the last of my bombs. The darkness was like a
cloud down there, enveloping the outer brigands. But up there we were
above it, etched by the starlight and Earthglow.

I came back to Anita. "We'll have to chance it now."

"Gregg...."

"Good-bye, dear. I'll jump first, down this side, you follow."

To leap into that black patch, with the rocks under it....

"Gregg--"

She was trying to tell me to look overhead. She gestured, "Gregg,
see!"

I saw it, out over the plains, a little speck amid the stars. A moving
speck, coming toward us!

"Gregg, what is it?"

I gazed, held my breath. A moving speck out there. A blob now. And
then I realized it was not a large object, far away, but small, and
already very close--only a few hundred feet off, dropping toward the
top of our dome. A narrow, flat, ten foot object, like a wingless
volplane. There were no lights on it, but in the Earthlight I could
see two crouching, helmeted figures riding it.

"Anita! Don't you remember!"

I was swept with dawning comprehension. Back in the Grantline camp
Snap and I had discussed how to use the _Planetara's_ gravity plates.
We had gone to the wreck and secured them, had rigged this little
volplane flyer....

The brigands on the rocks saw it now. A flash went up at it. One of
the figures crouching on it opened a flexible fabric like a wing over
its side. I saw another flash from below, harmlessly striking the
insulated shield.

I gasped to Anita, "Light your helmet! It's from Grantline! Let them
see us!"

I stood erect. The little flying platform went over us, fifty feet up,
circling, dropping to the dome top.

I waved my helmet light. The exit lock from below--up which we had
come--was near us. The advancing brigands were already in it! I had
forgotten to demolish the manuals. And I saw that the darkness down on
the rocks was almost gone now, dissipating in the airless night. The
brigands down there began firing up at us.

It was a confusion of flashing lights. I clutched at Anita.

"Come this way--run!"

The platform barely missed our heads. It sailed lengthwise of the dome
top, and crashed silently on the central runway near the stern tip.
Anita and I ran to it.

The two helmeted figu