hat had elapsed Hilary had become a legendary figure.

The sparkle came back to his eyes, his brain cleared of the fog of
hopelessness as he took command. Joan was lost--yes--but there was the
Earth to be saved.

* * * * *

His orders crackled. The little gorge became a hive of activity. With
Grim and Waters as efficient assistants he soon whipped the tiny
company into ordered discipline. Absurdly few to fight the Mercutians,
but Hilary counseled patience. They were a nucleus merely, he told
them. When the time arrived to fight in the open, the peoples of the
Earth would swell their ranks.

To provide against the day, he sent scouts out to filter through the
surrounding villages and towns; unarmed, to all seeming meekest of the
Earthlings. They stirred the embers of revolt with muted whisperings;
they found trustworthy leaders in each community to organize secretly
all able-bodied men; they returned with tidings of the outside world,
with food and other necessities.

Sometimes they did not return. Then others went out to take their
places. It was the fortune of war. Day and night a sentinel was posted
in a dugout directly under the overhanging lip of the gorge. It was
his duty to warn of impending attack; above all, to rake the sky
ceaselessly with a crudely-contrived periscope for signs of gathering
clouds, be they no bigger than a handsbreadth.

But the heavens were a brass blaze by day and a glittering mask of
stars by night. Weather machine or none, in truth it seemed that it
had forgotten to rain.

* * * * *

Hilary was hard put to it to restrain the impatience of his men.
Reports drifted in from the scouts. The premature revolt had been
crushed in blood and agony. New York was deserted except for the
Mercutians. The country round had been ruthlessly rayed; not only had
the armed bands of Earthmen been ferreted out and destroyed, but
peaceful communities had been wantonly burned into the ground.

Strong reinforcements had been rushed to the Great New York territory
from more peaceful sectors of the world. There were three of the
terrible diskoids hovering within a radius of one hundred miles, ready
to loose their hideous destruction at the slightest sign of
disaffection.

But this time the spirit of the Earthmen was not broken. Their gait
was springier, their glance more forthright than heretofore. For every
one knew that Hilary Grendon, the