ming it. It was at that
instant that the co-pilot decided to step through the door. The steel
door slammed against the bent figure of the gunman just as he pulled the
trigger. The gun went off with a roar, and Jenkins hit Griffin like a
tackler slamming into a ball carrier.

But louder than the pistol's sound, was the sound from without the
plane. It was as if all the fury of hell had exploded out there. The
plane became a straw licked upward and outward, sucked downward and
inward, in some vortex of sound and fury which was completely
unrecognizable. It was as if some external force was venting its spleen
on the craft. In the space of split seconds, in the time a picture forms
in a mind, the plane and all its occupants lost their meaning.

There was a great rending sound and, following, the disintegration of
the great ship into space.

* * * * *

Hale Jenkins felt himself spinning, whirling, falling into a vast empty
fog. There was peace and contentment in that fog, and a sort of
forgetfulness. There was nothing above and nothing below, just the grey
murk. For a last instant of awareness, Jenkins saw not far from him the
body of Griffin describing the same gyrations as his own. Then there was
a wrenching at his bowels, a tearing at his brain, and unconsciousness
slipped over him like the noose over the hanged man.

Odd piping voices penetrated into Jenkins' brain. He stirred and rolled
over, and after a few seconds got his hands under him and pushed himself
erect. He felt rather than saw the tree close to him, and put one hand
out to its friendly trunk, steadying himself against it. His head came
up after a second and his eyes cleared of the fog before them. He stared
in disbelief as he looked out over a great valley.

In the distance, made plain by the brilliant light of the sun, he saw a
tremendous castle with many-turreted immense sides. It shimmered and
danced in the brilliant light, like a mirage conjured by a fevered mind.
Yet he knew, without being told, that it was real--as real as the three
tiny men who regarded him with passionately intent though oddly
frightened eyes from a few feet off.

But sight was not the only sense of which Jenkins had the full use. He
was aware of an odd, rumbling sound in the distance, as of thunder, yet
not quite thunder. He noticed that the gnomes had also heard the sound,
for their eyes turned from their intent regard of him, to the castle
pe