She heard it. She whirled on him. "We have lost George Prince, it
seems. Well, we will survive without his scientific knowledge. And
you, Dean--and this Haljan, mark me--I will kill you both if you cause
trouble!"

Miko was gloating. "Don't kill them yet, Moa. What was it Grantline
said? Near the crater of Archimedes. Ring us down, Haljan. We'll
land."

He signaled the turret, gave Coniston the Grantline message, and
audiphoned it below to Hahn. The news spread about the ship. The
bandits were jubilant.

"We'll land now, Haljan. Come, Anita and I will go with you to the
turret."

I found my voice. "To what destination?"

"Near Archimedes. The Apennine side. Keep well away from the Grantline
camp. We will probably sight it as we descend."

There was no trajectory needed. We were almost over Archimedes now. I
could drop us with a visible, instrumental course. My mind was
whirling with a confusion of thoughts. What could we do? I met Snap's
gaze.

"Ring us down, Gregg," he said quietly.

I nodded. I pushed Moa's weapon away. "You don't need that--"

We went to the turret. Moa watched me and Snap, a grim, cold Amazon.
She avoided looking at Anita, whom Miko helped down the ladders with
a strange mixture of courtierlike grace and amused irony. Coniston
stared at Anita.

"I say, not George Prince? The girl--"

"No time for explanations," Miko commanded. "It's the girl,
masquerading as her brother. Get below, Coniston. Haljan takes us
down."

The astounded Englishman continued to gaze at Anita. But he said, "I
mean to say, where to on the Moon? Not to encounter Grantline at once,
Miko? Our equipment is not ready."

"Of course not. We will land well away--"

The reluctant Coniston left us. I took the controls. Miko, still
holding Anita as though she were a child, sat beside me. "We will
watch him, Anita. A skilled fellow at this sort of work."

I rang my signals for the shifting of the gravity plates. The answer
should have come from below within a second or two. But it did not.
Miko regarded me with his great bushy eyebrows upraised.

"Ring again, Haljan."

I duplicated. No answer. The silence was ominous.

Miko muttered, "That accursed Hahn. Ring again!"

I sent the imperative emergency demand.

No answer. A second or two. Then all of us in the turret were
startled. Transfixed. From below came a sudden hiss. It sounded in the
turret; it came from the shifting room call grid. The hissing of the
pne