calling myself
a murderer ever since I let you have Z-40, Mr. 2Q14N20," he concluded.
"I was sure we'd get here only to find you'd been killed. But I see
you've managed to escape from the creature so far--though by the look of
you, it must have been a narrow shave."

At this Harley shook off some of the gathering dizziness that hazed his
mind. He threw back his shoulders. "Managed to _escape_? I did better
than that. I got rid of the thing forever! Yes, I'll return to Earth
with you, but only because I need a new Blinco Dart. I'm coming back to
Z-40 at once. Perfect little paradise, now that I've got rid of
that--animated--rock pile--"

The belated rescuers caught him as he collapsed.

[Footnote 1: This implement, invented by Blansco 9X247A in 2052, is not
so much a "drill" as a compressor. It is somewhat superficially defined
in the Universal Dictionary, 2061 edition, as "a portable mechanism
which, by alternating gaseous blasts of extreme heat and cold, breaks
down the atoms of inorganic matter, causing them to collapse together in
dense compression." Thus a cubic yard of earth can be reduced in size,
in a few moments, to a pebble no larger than a pea; which pebble would
weigh, on Earth, close to a ton.]

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