brigand ship came under us. I crouched tense, breathless; every
moment it seemed that the brigands must discover us and loose their
bolts.

They may have seen us for some moments before they fired. I peered
over the side-shield down at our mark, then up ahead to get
Grantline's firing signal. It seemed long delayed. We were almost over
the ship. An added glow down there must have warned Grantline that a
shot was coming. The tiny red light flared bright on his platform.

I hissed on our Benson curve-light radiance. We had been dark, but a
soft glow now enveloped us. Its sheen went down to the ship to reveal
us. But its curving path showed us falsely placed. I saw the little
line of platforms ahead of us seem to move suddenly sidewise.

It was everyone for himself now; none of us could tell where the other
platforms actually were placed or headed. Anita swooped us sharply
down to avoid a possible collision.

"Gregg--?"

"Yes. I'm aiming."

I was making ready to drop the little explosive globe-bomb. Our
search-light ray at the camp, answering Grantline's signal, shot down
and bathed the ship in a white glare, revealing it for our aim.
Simultaneously the brigand bolts came up at us.

I held my bomb out over the shield, calculating the angle to throw it
down. The brigand rays flashed around me. They were horribly close;
Miko had understood our sudden visible shift and aimed, not where we
appeared to be, but where we had been a moment before.

* * * * *

I dropped my bomb hastily at the glowing white ship. The touch of a
hostile ray would have exploded it in my hand. I could see its
blue-sizzling fuse as it fell. I saw the others also dropping from our
nearby platforms. The explosions from them merged in a confusion of
the white glare--and a cloud of black light-mist as the brigands out
on the rocks used their occulting darkness bombs.

We swept past in a blur of leaping hostile beams. Silent battle of
lights! Darkness bombs down at the ship struggling to bar our camp
search-ray. The Benson radiance-rays from our passing platforms
curving down to mingle with the confusion. The electronic rays sending
up their bolts....

Our platforms dropped some ten dynamitrine bombs in that first
passage over the ship. As we sped by, I dimmed the Benson's radiance.
I peered. We had not hit the ship. Or if we had, the damage was
inconclusive. But on the rocks I could see a pile of ore-carts
scatt