and it was towards
the most pronounced of them that he flew. Soon it was looming far
above him: a long, high ridge, rearing more than three miles above the
level of the Great Briney, and crowded with trees even taller and
sturdier than those of the lower jungle plains. Beyond it was the most
likely spot....

The Hawk paused at the base of the ridge. There had been no warning
from Ban or Friday, but, to make sure, he established radio
connection.

"Friday?" he asked into the microphone. "Any activity on the ranch?
Any sign they're aware of our presence?"

Clear and deep from miles behind, the Negro's voice answered:

"No, suh. Dead still. I guess they're inside the buildings--except the
guards, and they're taking things easy. Where are you, suh?"

"About ten miles from you, 'north' and a little 'east,' at the foot of
the ridge. I think I'll know something soon now. Stand by."

Then Carse moved forward again, slowly winding up between the trees to
the summit of the ridge.

At the top he stopped. His eyes took in a long, wide valley, of which
the ridge where he hung was the southernmost barrier. He knew at once
something was wrong. Through his opened face-plate he was aware of a
breathless hush that hovered over the valley, a hush which embraced
its fifty miles or more of jungle length, a hush which was rendered
actually visible in several places by the unmoving, limp-hanging
leaves of the trees. Below, in the valley, all the myriad life of the
jungle seemed to have frozen, and only occasionally was the pause of
life and sound disturbed by the faint, muffled cry of a bird.

What had wrought the hush? Nothing showed to the naked eye.

From the summit of the ridge, Hawk Carse lifted Leithgow's glasses to
his eyes. And the valley was suddenly changed, and the hush explained.
The miracle lay before him.

CHAPTER III

_The Raid_

A dim, shimmering outline through the infra-red, the valley lay
revealed as a great natural cradle for a mammoth body of rock which
had been swung down from the deeps of space to the surface of
Satellite III.

Titanic, breath-taking in its majesty of sheer bulk, the asteroid of
Dr. Ku Sui was made visible.

It hung suspended, low over the tree-tops of the valley, and it filled
the valley with rock and towered above it. This was the asteroid,
exploded into a separate entity by the cataclysm that gave birth to
the planets, which Dr. Ku Sui had wrenched from the asteroidal belt