s, I
knew, most in his commander's trust. The signal could have been some
part of this night's ordinary routine, for all I knew.

I was hastily donning an Erentz suit. I added, "Let me out. I just got
the idea Wilks is acting strangely." I laughed. "Maybe the Earthlight
has touched him."

With my helmet on, I went through the locks. Once outside, with the
outer panel closed behind me, I dropped the weights from my belt and
shoes and extinguished my helmet light.

Wilks was still up there. Apparently he had not moved. I bounded off
across the ledge to the foot of the ascending stairs. Did Wilks see me
coming? I could not tell. As I approached the stairs the platform was
cut off from my line of vision.

I mounted with bounding leaps. In my flexible gloved hand I carried my
only weapon, a small projector with firing caps for use in this
outside near-vacuum.

I held the weapon behind me. I would talk to Wilks first. I went
slowly up the last hundred feet. Was Wilks still up there? The summit
was bathed in Earthlight. The little metal observatory platform came
into view above my head.

Wilks was not there. Then I saw him standing on the rocks nearby,
motionless. But in a moment he saw me coming.

I waved my left hand with a gesture of greeting. It seemed to me that
he started, made as though to leap away, and then changed his mind. I
sailed from the head of the staircase with a twenty foot leap and
landed lightly beside him. I gripped his arm for audiphone contact.

"Wilks!"

Through my visor his face was visible. I saw him and he saw me. And I
heard his voice:

"You, Haljan. How nice!"

It was not Wilks, but the brigand Coniston.

XXIV

The duty man at the exit locks stood at his window and watched me
curiously. He saw me go up the spider stairs. He could see the figure
he thought was Wilks, standing at the top. He saw me join Wilks, saw
us locked together in combat.

For a brief instant the duty man stood amazed. There were two
fantastic figures, fighting at the very brink of the cliff. They were
small, dwarfed by distance, alternately dim and bright as they swayed
in and out of the shadows. The duty man could not tell one from the
other. To him it was Haljan and Wilks, fighting to the death!

The duty man sprang into action. An interior siren call was on the
instrument panel near him. He rang it frantically.

The men came rushing to him, Grantline among them.

"What's this? Good God, Franck