And the room was vacant, heavy with the fatal silence of the ship.

* * * * *

Thad had no expert's knowledge of the flier's mechanism. But he had
studied interplanetary navigation, to qualify for his license to carry
masses of metal under rocket power through the space lanes and into
planetary atmospheres. He was sure he could manage the ship if its
mechanism were in good order, though he was uncertain of his ability
to make any considerable repairs.

To his relief, a scrutiny of the dials revealed nothing wrong.

He started the gyro motors, got the great wheels to spinning, and thus
stopped the slow, end-over-end turning of the flier. Then he went to
the rocket controls, warmed three of the tubes, and set them to
firing. The vessel answered readily to her helm. In a few minutes he
had the red fleck of Mars over the bow.

"Yes, I can run her, all right," he announced to the dog, which had
followed him up the steps, keeping close to his feet. "Don't worry,
old boy. We'll be eating a juicy beefsteak together, in a week. At
Comet's place in Helion, down by the canal. Not much style--but the
eats!

"And now we're going to do a little detective work, and find out what
made that disagreeable noise. And what happened to all your
fellow-astronauts. Better find out, before it happens to us!"

He shut off the rockets, and climbed down from the bridge again.

When Thad started down the companionway to the officers' quarters, in
the central one of the five main compartments of the ship, the dog
kept close to his legs, growling, trembling, hackles lifted. Sensing
the animal's terror, pitying it for the naked fear in its eyes, Thad
wondered what dramas of horror it might have seen.

The cabins of the navigator, calculator, chief technician, and first
officer were empty, and forbidding with the ominous silence of the
ship. They were neatly in order, and the berths had been made since
they were used. But there was a large bloodstain, black and circular,
on the floor of the calculator's room.

The captain's cabin held evidence of a violent struggle. The door had
been broken in. Its fragments, with pieces of broken furniture, books,
covers from the berth, and three service pistols, were scattered about
in indescribable confusion, all stained with blood. Among the
frightful debris, Thad found several scraps of clothing, of dissimilar
fabrics. The guns were empty.

* * *