, unconscious bodies of the patients put there. Though
hastily improvised, this hospital was complete, as fully equipped and
nearly as efficient as if it were on Earth and not in the belly of a
space-ship. The chances of the patients for complete recovery were not
diminished in any way by the sudden necessity for flight.

In a second, much smaller cabin, Dr. Ku Sui was confined by himself.
Its walls, of course, were of metal, and there was no possible means
of exit from it save by the door, which bore double locks. The
Eurasian, silent and drugged and stupid, immediately stretched his
tall form out on the single berth and in seconds was again sound
asleep. A third cabin was made over to his four assistants.

With everything completed, the underground refuge bare of articles of
value and the _Sandra_ stored and made ready for the long trip, the
inner door of the exit tube swung open, and the ship slid slowly out
of her cradle and into the water chamber for the last time. Her flight
to Earth had begun.

Eliot Leithgow stood near the Hawk in the control cabin, and his old
face was made sad by many memories. For years, this place that he was
now leaving had been his only home, his one sure haven. How carefully,
long ago, had he and Carse planned it and built it! How many times had
they met there, often when danger was close and enemies near, and
cemented still more firmly the bonds between them! To Leithgow, the
hill symbolized safety and friendship and his beloved work. Dangerous,
weary years, those he had spent in the hill, but priceless
nevertheless, warmed as they were by his achievements and the
friendship of Hawk Carse.

Now he was leaving it and going back to Earth. The outlaw years, it
seemed, were ended: Ku Sui was a prisoner, and the proof of his great
crime, which had been laid to Leithgow, was aboard. Earth--green
Earth! Separate, distinct, peerless in the universe; home of men, of
his kind! He had loved and worked and known honor and respect on
Earth; it held the grave of his wife, and the fresh, warm young love
of his wife reincarnate, his daughter Sandra. He was at last going
home to Earth from his exile on this desolate, raw frontier post.

There was a choking in Eliot Leithgow's throat at leaving the hill,
and he turned away, afraid at that moment of being observed by the
steel-gray eyes of his friend, Hawk Carse....

* * * * *

The _Sandra_ swam up through the lake's