n stood now with Miko, gazing down through a
deck window. Anita was alone at another.

"Lift, Haljan!"

I lifted up gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. And
started the central electronic engine. Its thrust from the stern moved
us diagonally over the purple forest trees.

The glade slid downward and away. I caught a last vague glimpse of
the huddled group of marooned passengers, staring up at us. Left to
their fate, alone on this deserted world.

With the three engines going, we slid smoothly upward. The forest
dropped, a purple spread of treetops edged with starlight and
Earthlight. The sharply curving horizon seemed to follow us upward. I
swung on all the power. We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly
circling, with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shining
little sea beneath.

"Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do
not know what you meant by darkening the deck lights." Her fingers dug
at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error."

I said, "An error--yes."

"I didn't know what it was. But you have me to deal with now. You
understand? I will tell my brother so. You said, 'On Earth a man may
kill the thing he loves.' A woman of Mars may do that! Beware of me,
Gregg Haljan."

Her passion-filled eyes bored into me. Love? Hate? The venom of a
woman scorned--a mingling of turgid emotions....

I twisted back from her grip and ignored her. She sat back, silently
watching my busy activities: the calculations of the shifting
conditions of gravity, pressures, temperatures; a checking of the
instruments on the board before me.

Mechanical routine. My mind went to Venza, back there on the asteroid.
The wandering little world was already shrinking to a convex surface
beneath us. Venza, with her last unknown play, gone to failure. Had I
missed my cue? Whatever my part, it seemed now that I must have
horribly misacted it.

The crescent Earth was presently swinging over our bow. We rocketed
out of the asteroid's shadow. The glowing, flaming Sun appeared,
making a crescent of the Earth. With the glass I could see our tiny
Moon, visually seeming to hug the limb of its parent Earth.

We were on our course to the Moon. My mind flung ahead. Grantline
with his treasure, unsuspecting this brigand ship. And suddenly,
beyond all thought of Grantline, there came to me a fear for Anita. In
God's truth I had been, so far, a very stumbling, inept champion,