"Sam, I think I have found something."

"What? Where?"

"Ahead, to the left of that big boulder, a declivity with somekind of opening at its end."

"Okay, baby, make for it. Rockets ready."

They pulled abreast of the boulder, circled around its far side,headed downhill.

"A cave, or a tunnel," he said. "Go slowч"

"Heat! Heat!" she said. "I'm tracking again!"

"I can even see the tire marks, lots of them!" said Murdock."This is it!"

They moved toward the opening.

"Go in, but go slowly," he ordered. "Blast the first thing thatmoves."

They entered the rocky portal, moving on sand now. Jenny turnedoff her visible lights and switched to infra-red. An i-r lens rosebefore the windshield, and Murdock studied the cave. It was abouttwenty feet high and wide enough to accommodate perhaps three carsgoing abreast. The floor changed from sand to rock, but it was smoothand fairly level. After a time it sloped upward.

"There's some light ahead," he whispered.

"I know."

"A piece of the sky, I think."

They crept toward it, Jenny's engine but the barest sigh withinthe great chambers of rock.

They stopped at the threshold to the light. The i-r shielddropped again.

It was a sand-and-shale canyon that he looked upon. Hugeslantings and overhangs of rock hid all but the far end from any eyein the sky. The light was pale, at the far end, and there was nothingunusual beneath it.

But nearer...

Murdock blinked.

Nearer, in the dim light of morning and in the shadows, stood thegreatest junkheap Murdock had ever seen in his life.

Pieces of cars, of every make and model, were heaped into a smallmountain before him. There were batteries and tires and cables andshock absorbers; there were fenders and bumpers and headlamps andheadlamp housings; there were doors and windshields and cylinders andpistons, carburetors, generators, voltage regulators, and oil pimps.

Murdock stared.

"Jenny," he whispered, "we've found the graveyard of the autos!"

A very old car, which Murdock had not even distinguished from thejunk during that first glance, jerked several feet in their directionand stopped as suddenly. The sound of rivet heads scoring ancientbrake drums screeched in his ears. Its tires were completely bald,and the left front one was badly in need of air. Its right frontheadlamp was broken and there was a crack in its windshield. It stoodthere before the heap, its awakened engine making a terrible rattlingnoise.

"What's happening?" asked Murdock. "What is it?"

"He is talking to me," said Jenny. "He is very old. Hisspeedometer has been all the way around so many times that he forgetsthe number of miles he has seen. He hates people, whom he says haveabused him whenever they could. He is the guardian of the graveyard.He is too old to go raiding any more, so he has stood guard over thespare parts heap for many years. He is not the sort who can repairhimself, as the younger ones do, so he must rely on their charity andtheir auto-repair units. He wants to know what I want here."

"Ask him where the others are."

But as he said it, Murdock heard the sound of many engines turningover, until the valley was filled with the thunder of theirhorsepower.

"They are parked on the other side of the heap," she said. "Theyare coming now."

"Hold back until I tell you to fire," said Murdock, ad the firstoneчa sleek yellow Chryslerчnosed around the heap.

Murdock lowered his head to the steering wheel, but kept his eyesopen behind his goggles.

"Tell him that you came here to join the pack and that you'vemonoed your driver. Try to get the black Caddy to come into range."

"He will not do it," she said. "I am talking with him now. Hecan broadcast just as easily from the other side of the pile, and hesays he is sending the six biggest members of the pack to guard mewhile he decides what to do. He has ordered me to leave the tunneland pull ahead into the valley."

"Go ahead, thenчslowly."

They crept forward.

Two Lincolns, a powerful-looking Pontiac, and two Mercs joined theChryslerчthree cars on each side of them, in position to ram.

"Has he given you and idea how many there are on the other side?"

"No. I asked, but he will not tell me."

"Well, we'll just have to wait then."

He stayed slumped, pretending to be dead. After a time, hisalready tired shoulders began to ache. Finally, Jenny spoke:

"He wants me to pull around the far end of the pile," she said,"now that they have cleared the way, and to head into a gap in therock which he will indicate. He wants to have his auto-mech go overme."

"We can't have that," said Murdock, "but head around the pile.I'll tell you what to do when I've gotten a glimpse of the otherside."

The two Mercs and the Big Chief drew aside and Jenny crept pastthem. Murdock stared upwards from the corner of his eye, up at thetowering mound of junk they were passing. A couple well-placedrockets on either end could topple it, but the auto-mech wouldprobably clear it eventually.

They rounded the lefthand end of the pile.

Something like forty-five cars were facing them at about ahundred-twenty yard's distance, to the right and ahead. They hadfanned out. They were blocking the exit around the other end of thepile, and the six guards in back of him now blocked the way behindMurdock.

On the far side of the farthest rank of the most distant cars anancient black Caddy was parked.

It had been beaten forth from assembly during a year when theapprentice-engineers were indeed thinking big. Huge it was, andshiny, and a skeleton's face smiled from behind its wheel. Black itwas, and gleaming chromium, and its headlamps were like dusky jewelsor the eyes of insects. Every plane and curve shimmered with power,and its great fishtailed rear end seemed ready to slap at the sea ofshadows behind it on an instant's notice, as it sprang forward for itskill.

"That's it!" whispered Murdock. "The Devil Car!"

"He is big!" said Jenny. "I have never seen a car that big!"

They continued to move forward.

"He wants me to head into that opening and park," she said.

"Head toward it, slowly. But don't go into it," said Murdock.

They turned and inched toward the opening. The other cars stood, thesounds of their engines rising and falling.

"Check all weapons systems."

"Red, all around."

The opening was twenty-five feet away.

"When I saw `now,' go into neutral steer and turn onehundred-eighty degreesчfast. They can't be expecting that. Theydon't have it themselves. Then open up with the fifty-calibers andfire your rockets at the Caddy, turn at a right angle and start backthe way we came, and spray the naphtha as we go, and fire on the sixguards...

"Now!" he cried, leaping up in his seat.

He was slammed back as they spun, and he heard the clattering ofher guns before his head cleared. By then, flames were leaping up inthe distance.

Jenny's guns were extruded now and turning on their mounts,spraying the line of vehicles with hundreds of leaden hammers. Sheshook, twice, as she discharged two rockets from beneath her partlyopened hood. Then they were moving forward, and eight or nine of thecars were rushing downhill toward them.

She turned again in neutral steer and sprang back in the directionfrom which they had come, around the southeast corner of the pile.Her guns were hammering at the now retreating guards, and in the wideread view mirror Murdock could see that a wall of flame was toweringhigh behind them.

"You missed it!" he cried. "You missed the black Caddy! Yourockets hit the cars in front of it and it backed off!"

"I know! I'm sorry!"