"A very clever trick, that
ledge," he said. "Malmsworth thinks to elude us, but he never shall,
eh, Mr. Wordsley?" There were tears of frustration in his eyes.

It embarrassed Mr. Wordsley, who could only point to the pall of
gleaming dust where their ship had lain, and to the silver needle which
glinted for a moment in the sky and was gone.

"Malmsworth would not do that to me," Captain DeCastros said.

But he had.

* * * * *

"We may be here quite a long while," Mr. Wordsley said, and could not
contrive to sound downhearted about it.

But Captain DeCastros had already turned away and was feeling his way
back along the ledge.

Mr. Wordsley waited just a moment longer; then he took from his pocket a
heavy object and dropped it upon the slope and it rolled over and over,
down and down, until its metallic sheen was lost in that superior glare.

It was a spare irmium alloy plug.

He made his way back to the water-maker. They would have to take good
care of it from now on.

He was not concerned with the basin. However, in the soft, damp sand
beside the basin, plainly imprinted there, as if someone's raiding party
had interrupted _someone's_ bathing party, there remained a single,
small and dainty footprint.

One could almost imagine that a faint breath of perfume still lingered
upon the sheltered air of the rift, but, of course, only things which
glittered interested Mr. Wordsley.

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Amazing Science Fiction Stories_
September 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling
and typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Marooner, by Charles A. Stearns

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAROONER ***

***** This file should be named 24791.txt or 24791.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/9/24791/

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in th