ld by two determined-looking men.

There was a chorus of strange guttural oaths, but every hand moved
skyward, reluctantly.

* * * * *

Hilary picked out the most blasphemous sounding of the cursers,
rightly deeming him the Cor in charge.

"You," he said, "what switches regulate the weather machine?"

The Mercutian Cor was a particularly ugly specimen. The gray warts
were gigantic, hiding whatever semblance of manlike features there
might have been beneath.

"I'll see you dogs burned to a cinder in the sun first," he growled.

"Keep them covered, Grim," Hilary said sharply. "I'll take care of
this fellow personally."

He walked straight across the room for the Cor, eyes blazing, index
finger on trigger. The Cor, fear staring out of his lidless eyes,
backed slowly away from the approaching death. There was a hushed
silence.

"I'll tell, I'll tell!" the Cor screamed, as the relentless weapon
almost touched his paunchy stomach.

"I thought you would," Hilary said grimly, not for an instant relaxing
the pressure against the trigger. "If you value your worthless hide,
you'd better talk, and talk fast. What switch reverses the machine, to
bring on rain? If you are wise, you won't try to fool me."

The wretch almost stumbled in his eagerness. "By the gray soil of
Mercury I'll tell you the truth." His arm flung up, pointing. "That
knob over there controls the--"

Hilary never heard the rest. There was a crash at the other end of the
laboratory. One of the Mercutians, tired of keeping his arms high
extended, had attempted to rest his huge bulk against a laboratory
table. It went over with a splintering crash of glassware.

* * * * *

Hilary whirled around to face the noise. As he did so, the Cor seized
his opportunity. His right arm dropped to his side, jerked up his
sun-tube. Hilary heard Grim's warning cry, tried to pivot back again.
But Grim beat him to it. The dynol pistol exploded sharply; the
flaming pellet caught the Cor square in his side. There was a dull
explosion and the Cor was torn violently into bits. He dropped, a mass
of shapeless blobs.

But now hell had broken loose. The Mercutians were not cowards. At the
moment of the diversion, every one of them had gone for his sun-tube.
A flame streaked close to Hilary's head, shivered the opposite wall
into molten fragments. He ducked behind a table and fired. A Mercutian
threw up his hands,