what do you do with a clown like that? Lock him in the
closet or look at him through a telescope? Goodbye--hello--goodbye. A
kid with gaudy banners flying, if he lives to be forty--which he never
will. They'll be giving him artificial hands and feet, and he'll be
trying for Pluto. A friend. I guess I'm proud. That's all. Anything else
you want to know?"

"Yeah. There was a cute little girl at Serene."

"Jennie Harper. She married one of those singing Moon prospectors.
Somebody murdered them both--way out on Far Side."

Frank Nelsen's mouth twisted. "That's enough, pal," he said. "I better
go do my sitting tight someplace else. Keep your Archer handy. Thanks,
and see you..."

Within forty minutes David Lester was showing him some pictures that a
hopper had brought in from a vault in a surface-asteroid.

On the screen, great, mottled shapes moved through a lush forest.
Thousands of tiny, flitting bat-like creatures--miniature pterodactyls
of the terrestrial Age of Reptiles--hovered over a swamp, where millions
of insects hung like motes in the light of the low sun. A much larger
pterodactyl, far above, glided gracefully over a cliff, and out to sea,
its long, beaked head turning watchfully.

"Hey!" Nelsen said mildly, as his jaded mind responded.

Lester nodded. "_They_ were on Earth, too--as the Martians must have
been--exploring and taking pictures, during the Cretaceous Period. Oh,
but there's a perhaps even better sequence! Like the Martians, they had
a world-wrecking missile, which they were building in space. Spherical.
About six miles in diameter, I calculate. Shall I show you?"

"No... I think I'll toddle over to the offices, Les. Keep wearing those
Archers, people. Glad the kid likes to play in his..."

Nelsen had donned his own Seven, with the helmet fastened across his
chest by a strap. At the KRNH office, there was a letter, which luckily
hadn't been sent out to Post Eight. The tone was more serious than that
of any that Nance Codiss had sent before.

"Dear Frank: I'm actually coming your way. I'll be stopping to work at
the Survey Station Hospital on Mars for two months en route..."

He read that far when he heard the sirens and saw the flashes of
defending batteries that were trying to ward off missiles from
Pallastown. He latched his helmet in place. He was headed for the
underground galleries when the first impacts came. He saw four domes
vanish in flashes of fire. Then he didn't run anymore. H