"Tell me--" I gasped. "There are so many things that I must know! But first tell me who you are, and how you know of the Dondara Stone, and if there is still"--some instinctive dread brought my voice to a whisper--"still a robot named Malgarth?" A cold bright light flashed in the eyes of the stranger. "My name," he said, "is Kel Aran. But to the Emperor's Galactic Guard, and to the Space Police of Malgarth's Corporation, I am just the Falcon. Or sometimes the Falcon of Earth--for I was born on your own planet, Barihorn!" I was reeling on my feet. He reached out a strong argent arm to steady me. "The Stone?" I whispered. "The Stone is on the Earth." A reverence was in his voice, as if he had spoken of a living god--or goddess. "I saw it once when I was a child on Earth. For my father was a Warder of the Stone. And now--" I wondered at the softness in his voice, the shadow of agony on his cragged face. "Now," he said, "Verel Erin is the Stone's Custodian. She is a red-haired girl of Earth. I loved her when we were children in the desert valley where the Stone is hidden. I loved her--but the Warders chose her to be the Custodian." His lean face was white, and his tone had the break of tragedy. Darkness was crowding upon me. But I found the strength for one more question. "Malgarth--" * * * * * The silver shoulders of Kel Aran drew square, and his gray eyes shone with a fighting glint. "Malgarth still rules the Corporation," he said. "And the Corporation has grown mightier than the Empire. Your prophesied return is in good time, Barihorn, for the struggle is at hand! It will be the robots, or mankind--both cannot survive." "War?" My dry lips moved without sound. "There will be war?" "Men have been enslaved," rang the voice of Kel Aran. "Now they fight for freedom. We have cruised the Galaxy from Koridos to Tenephron, and everywhere there is rebellion--brave and yet hopeless rebellion against the iron might of the Space Police and the fleets of the Galactic Guard! For Malgarth moves the Emperor like a puppet, to the murder of his own wretched kind. "We have come now to beg the aid of the Stone--for without the ancient secret that you sealed within its crystal brain, Barihorn, there is hope of nothing save death. The Stone, I know, is slow to act--there was a legend that it would never strike until you returned, Barihorn. But we had hopes that it would move when we told of all the suffering we have seen--mankind enslaved and tortured and destroyed beneath the iron wheels of the Corporation! "But we found a great fleet of the Galactic Guard blockading the Earth. Hanging here, waiting for a chance to slip through, we discovered you, Barihorn--incredible good fortune, if you can move the Stone to strike! But there was something more alarming--a haze of fire and darkness that wrapped the Earth."