er to make."

"Well?"

"You killed my pilot," said Caron suavely. "I can't fly, myself. Take me
off, and I'll pay you anything you want."

"In bullets," retorted Gray. "You won't want witnesses to this."

"Circumstances force me. Physically, you have the advantage."

Jill's fingers caught his arm. "Don't, Gray! The Project...."

Caron faced her. "The Project is doomed in any case. My men carried out
my secondary instructions. All the cables in your valley have been cut.
There is a storm now ready to break.

"In fifteen minutes or so, everything will be destroyed, except the
domes. Regrettable, but...." He shrugged.

Jill's temper blazed, choking her so that she could hardly speak.

"Look at him, Gray," she whispered. "That's what you're so proud of
being. A cynic, who believes in nothing but himself. Look at him!"

Gray turned on her.

"Damn you!" he grated. "Do you expect me to believe you, with the world
full of hypocrites like him?"

Her eyes stopped him. He remembered Moulton, pleading for her life. He
remembered how she had looked back there at the tunnel, when they had
been sure of death. Some of his assurance was shaken.

"Listen," he said harshly. "I can save your valley. There's a chance in
a million of coming out alive. Will you die for what you believe in?"

She hesitated, just for a second. Then she looked at Dio and said,
"Yes."

Gray turned. Almost lazily, his fist snapped up and took Caron on his
flabby jaw.

"Take care of him, Dio," he grunted. Then he entered the ship, herding
the white-faced girl before him.

* * * * *

The ship hurtled up into airless space, where the blinding sunlight lay
in sharp shadows on the rock. Over the ridge and down again, with the
Project hidden under a surf of storm-clouds.

Cutting in the air motors, Gray dropped. Black, bellowing darkness
swallowed them. Then he saw the valley, with the copper cables fallen,
and the wheat already on fire in several places.

Flying with every bit of his skill, he sought the narrowest part of the
valley and flipped over in a racking loop. The stern tubes hit rock. The
nose slammed down on the opposite wall, wedging the ship by sheer
weight.

Lightning gathered in a vast javelin and flamed down upon them. Jill
flinched and caught her breath. The flame hissed along the hull and
vanished into seared and blackened rock.

"Still willing to die for principle?" asked Gray brutally.

She