I have seen his face.

I have seen--

_Take it easy, Hyrst. Take your time._

Elena is dead, and this is Christina bending over me.

I have seen the killer's face.

It is the face of Vernon.

CHAPTER VII

There was Christina, and there was Shearing, and there were two more he
did not know, leaning over him. The drug was wearing off a little, and
Hyrst could see them more clearly, see the bitter disappointment in
their eyes.

"Is that all?" Christina said. "Are you sure? Go back again--"

They took him back again, and it was the same.

"That's all MacDonald said? Then we're no closer to the Titanite than we
were before."

Hyrst was not interested in the Titanite. "Vernon," he said. Something
red and wild rose up in him, and he tried to tear away the straps that
held him. "Vernon. I'll get him--"

"Later, Hyrst," said Shearing, and sighed. "Lie still a bit. He's on
Bellaver's yacht, remember? Quite out of reach. Now think. MacDonald
said, You won't get it, it's where nobody will ever get it--"

"What's the use?" said Christina, turning away. "It was a faint hope
anyway. Dying men don't draw obliging maps for you." She sat down on the
edge of a bunk and put her head in her hands. "We might as well give up.
You know that."

One of the two Lazarites who had done the latent probe on Hyrst said
with hollow hopefulness, "Perhaps if we let him rest a while and then go
over it again--"

"Let me up out of here," said Hyrst, still groggy with the drug. "I want
Vernon."

"I'll help you get him," said Shearing, "if you'll tell me what
MacDonald meant when he said _nobody will ever get it unless I show them
how_."

"How the devil do I know?" Hyrst tugged at the straps, raging. "Let me
up."

"But you knew MacDonald well. You worked with him and beside him for
years."

"Does that tell me where he hid the Titanite? Don't be an ass, Shearing.
Let me up."

"But," said Shearing equably, "he didn't say _where_. He said _how_."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Is it? Listen. Nobody will ever get it unless I show them where. Nobody
will ever get it unless I show them how."

Hyrst stopped fighting the straps. He began to frown. Christina lifted
her head again. She did not say anything. The two Lazarites who had done
the probe stood still and held their breath.

Shearing's mind touched Hyrst's stroking it as with soothing fingers.
"Let's think about that for a minute. Let your thoughts move freely.
Mac