nto a deep
roar, then cut out almost instantly.

Delman saw the flash of silver overhead as the spaceboat fought to
recover altitude. One moment, it was climbing; the next, it veered
sharply to the left and hit the cliff.

Sound and light combined, deafening and dazzling, as the force of the
explosion thrust outward, tearing at the foundations of the house
itself.

When the hail of falling rock had died away, they got up and looked
around them. It was difficult to determine the extent of the damage, for
dust swirled and eddied in all directions. Only gradually did the
details emerge from the surrounding mist.

The crash had caused a small avalanche. Rubble littered the smooth width
of the runway. Of the spaceboat, there was nothing to be seen but a scar
on the mountainside.

John Bridge and the two servants had vanished.

"That crazy old fool," said Walter Pellinger. "I might have known he'd
mess things up."

"It wasn't him," Gillian Murray replied. "I think it was the servants.
I'm sure I heard him shout a warning at them."

"You think! _You think!_" Walter Pellinger shook his head vigorously
from side to side. His ears were still ringing from the blast. "He's
dead, Miss Murray. You hear me? He's dead! He doesn't need a champion
now!"

Gillian Murray flushed. "Why, you ungrateful--"

"Shut up, both of you!" said Jason Tarsh angrily. "Can't you see there's
work to be done? We've got to clear the runway."

Curtis Delman left the veranda rail and came toward them. "And just how
do you propose to do that, Mr. Tarsh?" he asked quietly.

* * * * *

All of them looked at the lawyer in amazement. Jason Tarsh laughed
derisively.

"Listen to him!" he exclaimed. "The Great Man! Wants to know how you
remove a few small stones!"

"You damned idiot!" said Delman savagely. "Use your eyes! Why were this
house and the storage sheds prefabricated? Just for the hell of it?
Dozens of useless trips when you could build what you wanted from rock?
Until today, there wasn't a loose pebble in this godforsaken place!
Didn't that strike you as odd? Well, didn't it?"

Tarsh made no reply.

The lawyer moved back to the veranda rail. "There!" he said, pointing at
a near-lying stone the size of a tennis ball. "Go ahead, try your
strength. Throw it over the side!"

Uncertainly, Jason Tarsh walked into the open. They watched him as he
bent down to pick up the small purple lump. For nearly a minut