showed, where the pebbles, stones and boulders had been swept away by
the wind.

Snap and the girls landed beside us. We spoke softly. None of us, not
even Molo, knew how far sound would carry in this air.

"Where is the place from here?" Snap demanded.

"Off there."

Molo spoke with docile, guarded softness. He gestured with his head
and shoulder. A quarter of a mile away, over these uplands, the broken
land went down in a sharp depression.

"It is there. I think from here we should go on the ground. There is
no guard, and I think seldom is anyone on top."

"If I help you now, if we should wreck the gravity controls, then
Wandl will be helpless to navigate space, or to interfere with the
rotation of Earth, Mars and Venus. The allied worlds might then defeat
the Wandl ships in battle. If that happened, perhaps your governments,
because of my help here, would forgive what my _Star-Streak_ has
done."

"Your piracy?" I said.

"Yes. I am outlawed. I might be reinstated if you would speak the good
words for me."

"Maybe."

"Maybe even they would reward me. You think so, Gregg Haljan?"

He wanted to be on the winning side; this suited us. "Let's try it and
see, Molo. I'll speak plenty of good words for you."

Now, as we landed on the uplands, he said, "You will do best to free
my hands."

"Oh, no!" Snap declared.

"But I am a good fighter. Something unexpected might come."

"Too good a fighter," I said. "We trust you because we have to, Molo,
but no more than is necessary."

A small recess in the rocks was near us. We put Molo there, with his
hands bound, and with Anita and Venza to guard him. Venza held the
electronic gun; she knew how to fire it. The girls crouched in a
depression about twenty feet away. They could see Molo plainly; if he
moved, a flash of the gun would kill him. He knew that.

The girls gazed at us as we were ready to start. "Good-by, Gregg.
Good-by, Snap. Good luck!"

"We won't be long. Sit where you are." Snap touched Venza's shoulder
for his good-by. "Listen, Venza: Molo has already told us enough to
enable us to find the ship. If he tries anything, kill him."

"Right," she said.

We left them. A minute or two, cautiously shoving ourselves along the
rocks, and we were crouching there. The cauldron was about two hundred
feet broad and fifty feet deep; an irregular circular bowl. The
starlight gleamed on it, and there were dots of small artificial
light. We saw a group of sma