that control-room that was darkened that he might see the
world outside--Chet, grim and haggard and stained of face and with
thin-drawn lips that bled unheeded where his teeth had clamped down on
them--Chet Bullard, Master Pilot of the World, had no thought nor
emotion to spare for aught beyond the reach of his hand. He was throwing
his ship at a speed that was sheer suicide over a strange terrain
flashing under and close below.

He overshot the target on the first try. The twin beams of his
searchlights picked up the dazzling black and white of the arena; it was
before him!--under him!--lost far astern in one single instant that was
ended as it began. But his hand, ready on a release key, pressed as he
passed, and the sky behind him turned blazing bright with the cloud of
flare-dust that made white flame as it fell.

Such speed was not meant for close work; nor was a ship expected to hit
dense air with a blast such as this on full. Even through the thick
insulated walls came a terrible scream. Like voices of humans in agony,
the tortured air shrieked its protest while Chet threw on the bow-blast
to check them and slanted slowly, slowly upward in a great loop whose
tremendous size was an indication of the speed and the slow turning that
was all Chet could stand and live through.

* * * * *

He came in more slowly the next time. Floodlights in the under-skin of
the ship were blazing white, and whiter yet were the star-flares that he
dropped one after another. Brighter than the sunlight of the brightest
day this globe had ever seen, the sky, ablaze with dazzling fire, shone
down in vivid splendor to drain every shadow and half-light and leave
only the hard contrast of black and white.

In the nose of the ship was a .50 caliber gun. Chet sprayed the pyramid
top, but it is doubtful if the two below heard the explosions. They must
have seen the whole cap of the mountain of rock vanish as if,
feather-light, it had been snatched up in a gust of wind. But perhaps
they had eyes only for each other and for a glittering, silvery ship
that came crashing toward the place where they stood, that checked
itself on thunderous exhausts; then touched the hard floor of the arena
as softly as the caress of a master hand on the controls.

But from them came no cry nor exclamation of joy; they were dazed, Chet
saw, when he threw open the port. They were walking slowly,
unbelievingly, toward him till Diane