"You stay up there. I have men stand here so you not come down. Windows have bars up there."

"All right," I said. "Are we landing now?"

"Yes. My camp in the mountains here. We stay three four of your days. Then all of my men are hereMy brues my big weapons. We go attack the Hill Cityl" He took a step upward toward me. "You find Muta up there with the girl Rowena. You send Muta away, you understand? And you tell Rowena, I not so bad man." I saw again that gleam of irony in his eyes. He gestured and turned away, and from nearby three of his fellows appeared.

I ascended. In one of the upper rooms I located Rowena and Muta. I stood unobserved for a moment at its threshold -. my heart beating tumultuously at seeing Rowena again. Am with a thrill, realization swept me: this was the room i] which Roc, Jimmy and I had our conference. In this room hidden in its wall, was the secret compartment containin; weapons! And no one now in the vehicle-save Rowen, and myselfknew that they were herel XII HOPE "NO ONE COMING, ROWENA?"

"NO."

"It must be here somewherea hidden spring, a lever or something. I saw Roc open it. Was it here? You saw him, Rowena."

"Yes, therejust a little higher. I think it was off to the left." Rowena stood at the doorway, watching that no one saw us. I searched with my hands along the steel-paneled wall.

And suddenly was rewarded. What I touched I do not know; some concealed mechanism. The panel slid noiselessly aside.

I had a fleeting thought that Dorrek would have found this tiny arsenal and emptied it. But he had not. The cupboard shelves still held the rows of little bombs and rockets, tiny strange devices, the operation of which I bad no vaguest notion.

"Got it, Rowenal Everything's here." I put forward a hand the length of my hobbled reach to touch what seemed a fragile globe with a hooked lever on it. But I paused. If I were to clumsily set it offthis close room might suddenly be filled with a paralyzing gas or a flare of actinic light to strike me blind "Rowena, I'm afraid to touch the blamed things!" But there were several hand projectors of the heat-ray; I knew how to use them. And there were knives.

-Jackl Quickly!" I could hear the footsteps outside. I seized a small cylinder and drew the slide quickly closed. Rowena came swiftly on tiptoe to join me, and we moved away from the wall. The fastenings of the closing slide clicked faintly. I recall that I wondered if I could ever get the thing open again. The footsteps outside retreated; no one came in.

"Aren't you hungry, RowenaP"

"Yes. Shall I tell MutaP"

"If you can find her." I had stuffed the weapon in my pocket. We were together m the center of the room. Dorrek looked in.

"Oh, Dorrek!" I called. "Were hungrycan Muta bring us food? We thought we would eat it here together."

"Yes," he said. His gaze roved us, met mine with his slow, enigmatic smile and he turned away.

This was a full day-cycle after the ball had landed in the mountain valley. It was the first opportunity I had had to be alone with Rowena long enough to get the secret panel open. We were both prisoners in the upper tier of the ball, though free to move about its several rooms. I had found them all with windows either closed and sealed, or if open, with a stout grid of metal lattice. And there never was a moment when at least three Mercurians were not guarding the lower end of the single inclined ladder.

This upper tier was infrequently used now. Its two control rooms were unoccupied and sealed. Dorrek's men occasionally came up, but not often; most of the activity was on the lower tier, and outside. Rowena and Muta slept in the room in which the weapon cupboard was hidden, and Dorrek bad assigned me a room nearby.

What was transpiring in and around the vehicle I had little opportunity to observesuch as the mobilization of the Cold Country army. The only open windows to which I had access faced a sheer black wall a hundred feet away. I could see the dark rocks upon which the vehicle was resting.

And upward, a thousand feet of forbidding perpendicular cliff against the blackness of the sky.

We were here, not only that first day-cycle, but three others. The sounds of the arriving men floated in to vs, ~ along with the clank of giant projectors laboriously being dragged over rocks. There were spots of lights outside, and dim vistas of encamped men working to assemble their mechanisms. And sometimes I had brief glimpses of dark lines of things slithering along the rocks. Giant insects the bruesdocile here with their masters.

The army which had attacked the Water City was here.

There came others from the Cold County. I could not guess how many. By Earth standards of modern warfare, not many.

Two thousand, perhaps.

Soon the whole place seemed glowing with a blue-green radiance. The weather continued with a threat of a slowgathering storm. At times it was solid black night, then vaguely weak twilight, livid with the turgid yellow-green shafts that shot through the gathering clouds. And it was steadily colder outside.

They were tense hours for Rowena and me. We got the panel open again, but decided to take only a ray-cylinder each.

The guards at the foot of the ladder were changed at intervals, always armed and wholly alert. I could have shot them down, but I knew it would bring a hundred men upon us before we could get out of the ball's lower door.

I thought desperately I might break the metallic bars of an upper window, but I had no prolonged opportunity and no tools. The heat-ray from one of our cylinders would melt them through, but we would be discovered.

There was still Muta. Rowena's first talk with Muta was interrupted, but during the first cycle here in the mountains they spent the time of sleep together, and Rowena cautiously resumed her efforts. Muta was receptive. What Rowena now urged, the woman herself had born in mind when she told Jimmy that some time she would talk to him alone. Certainly she wanted Rowena away.

"You see, Mutayou saw my husband with me at the meal tonight? He loves me and I love him. Could you not see it?"

"That true. But what difference? Dorrek a man, take what he want and he want you." Rowena gripped her. "That's the danger! You've got to help us escape from here, Muta!"

"No, he km me if I try thati I frightened!"

"Talk softly! He won't kill you. He won't know anything about it. We'll plan how it can be done. You-at the time of sleep, like nowyou can get the guards away from the ladder." The plan was coming to Rowena as she talked. It was cold outside, and by another time of sleep with the approaching storm it would be still colder. She questioned Muta, found that would probably be so. And outside, Muta said, the men were beginning to wear enshrouding fur robes and hoods. Muta could get two of those. And give Rowena and me a little food and water to take with us.

It should be possible for the Mercurian woman to get the guards momentarily away from the ladder, long enough for Rowena and me, disguised, to slip past.

We would be alone in the mountainous wilds of a strange planet, but it was better than being here. I thought I had a general idea of how to get back to the Light Country. It was not far by Earth measurements.

Muta agreed to try it. She brought the hooded garments, which Rowena had concealed in a couch.

We thought we would manage the escape the next time of sleep. Muta was ready. Rowena had carefully drilled her in what she was to do.

We were ready. I was in my room, tense, waiting for Rowena's call. Outside, with a cold rising wind moaning past the rocks, the encampment was setting to sleep.

And then there was a sudden activity! A shrill distant alarm! A turmoil spreading everywhere. In a moment the lower tier of the ball was resounding with hurrying footsteps.