*

The stewards pushed another at him. Like an angry Titan, he flung it.
And another. One by one the chests sailed out and crashed.

"There is your food--go pick it up! Haljan, make ready to ring us away!"

On the deck lay the dead body of Rance Rankin, which the stewards had
carried out. Miko seized it, flung it.

"There! Go to your last resting place!"

And the other bodies. Balch Blackstone, Captain Carter, Johnson--Miko
flung them. And the course masters and those of our crew who had been
killed; the stewards appeared with them; Miko unceremoniously cast them
off.

The passengers were all on the ground now. It was dim down there. I
tried to distinguish Venza, but could not. I could see Dr. Frank's
figure at the end of the chained line of men. The passengers were gazing
in horror at the bodies hurtling over them.

"Ready, Haljan?"

Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!"

I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemed so.
On the helio-room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silent statues in
the blue-lit gloom.

The disembarkation was over.

"Close the ports," Miko commanded.

The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome-windows
slid closed. Moa hissed against my ear:

"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!"

Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in the
purple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friends
stood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of the closed
dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancy pictured
this last sight of them--Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and Dud Ardley.

They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita, and myself.

* * * * *

I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding down
below, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_
respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating,
and the gravity plates shifted into lifting combinations.

The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the grating of
the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command:

"Lift, Haljan."

Hahn had been mingled with the confusion of the deck, though I had
hardly noticed him; Coniston had remained below, with the crew answering
my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through a deck window.
Anita was alone at another.

"Lift, Haljan."

I lifted us gently