been rigidly excluding from his mind had burst the
dam he had built before it. He could feel danger in the air. It was in
the dawn, in the light of the sky. It was everywhere. He and his
companions were aliens on this world, and the planet was striking at
them, striving to eliminate them, contriving to destroy them.

He heard it before he saw it.

Something was grunting in the air. Above the tops of the trees something
was grunting. He needed seconds to recognize the sound. Then he
recognized it. And jerked himself to a halt, his eyes wildly probing
upward.

He saw it.

* * * * *

The ship. The grunting roar had come from the Kruchek drivers fighting
the gravity of the planet.

The ship had taken off without them.

Had Nielson gone mad? Had he seen danger approaching and jumped the ship
into the sky to escape it?

"Wait! Nielson! Pick us up!"

The ship flew on. Gaining speed, it passed over their heads. They caught
another glimpse of it as it passed over an opening in the branches of
the trees. Then it was gone, the throb of the drivers dying quickly
away.

"Nielson will come back for us." Noble's voice, usually poised and
assured, was garbled. "He'll return and pick us up. He won't leave us
here."

"He had some reason for taking off," Hargraves heard himself saying.
"He'll come back. He has to." Subconsciously he knew that this, at the
very best, was wishful thinking.

The ship had no more than vanished until another sound came to their
ears, that of men shouting. A group came into sight among the trees,
following along the ground the course the ship had taken through the
air.

"They're our fellows!" Hargraves heard Noble gasp.

"What happened?" the captain demanded, as the group approached.

Nielson was in the lead. There was a bruise on his cheek and his right
eye was already beginning to turn black. "I'll tell you what happened!"
he said savagely. "Sarkoff and Ron Val took over the ship, that's what
happened!"

"Ron Val!"

"That's what I said. Ron Val was helping him. They pulled guns. Before
we knew what was happening, they had herded us together and were shoving
us outside. I tried to stop it and Sarkoff took a poke at me."

"It wasn't really Sarkoff, then?" Noble whispered.

"Any damned fool would have known that!" Nielson answered. He spoke to
the bio-chemist but his eyes were on Hargraves. "I'm going to repeat
that, so there won't be any misunderstanding