hen the first faint reflected rays filtered down through the
matted gloom of tree and vine and bush the creatures that had tracked
for prey all night looked to their lairs: and gradually, the tenor of
the jungle noises waned off into a few last screams and muttered
growls, and then died altogether into the heavy, brooding hush that
comes always with dawn over the jungles of Satellite III.

Jupiter thrust his flaming arch upwards over the horizon, and climbed
with his whole vast blood-blotched bulk into a sky turned suddenly
blue. Lake and jungle shimmered under the rapidly dissipating night
vapors. The ranch-beacon paled into unimportance. Day had come.

And now the three bloated figures of metal and fabric that were men
crouched closely back beneath the leaves of the trees that concealed
them, and waited tensely, not daring at first to move for fear of
discovery. Each one could see, through the intervening growth, the
watch-towers of the ranch; but Friday, from his post in the tree to
the "east," could see the area best, and it was Friday to whom Carse's
next words were addressed.

"Eclipse?" his terse voice asked. "Do the guards in the towers seem to
notice anything?"

The big Negro strained cautiously for a better view.

"No, suh, Cap'n Carse. Sure they can't see us at all. Just pacin'
round on their towers, kind of fidgety."

"Anyone else in sight?"

"No, suh.... Oh, now there's somethin'. Two of the guards are looking
below, cupping their ears. Someone down there must be tellin' them
somethin'. Now they're lookin' up to the sky--the northern sky. Yes,
suh! All three of 'em! They're expectin' someone, sure enough!"

"Good. He must be coming. Use your glasses."

* * * * *

Then in all three trees the instruments that Eliot Leithgow had shaped
were raised, and the whole sweep of horizon and the glowing, clear
blue dome of sky subjected to minute inspection through their
detecting infra-red and ultra-violet. Ban Wilson, perhaps, stared most
eagerly, for he had never seen Ku Sui's asteroid, and despite himself
still only half-believed that twenty craggy, twisted miles of rock
could be swung as its master willed in space, and brought down bodily
to Satellite III.

But he saw nothing in the sky; nothing looming gigantically over any
part of the horizon; and he reported disgustedly:

"Nothing doing anywhere. Carse."

"Don't see nothing either, suh," the Negro's deep voice adde