"Gregg, dear one--oh, we've got to do it!" Those waiting figures would pounce on us. "Anita, lie here a moment." I jumped up and ran twenty feet toward the bow; then back, toward the stern, flinging down the last of my bombs. The darkness was like a cloud down there, enveloping the outer brigands. But up here we were above it, etched by the starlight and Earthglow. I came back to Anita. "We'll have to chance it now." "Gregg...." "Good-by, dear. I'll jump first, down this side--you follow." To leap into that black patch, with the rocks under it.... "Gregg--" She was trying to tell me to look overhead. She gestured. "Gregg, see!" I saw it out over the plains--a little speck amid the stars. A moving speck, coming toward us! "Gregg, what is it?" * * * * * I gazed, held my breath. A moving speck out there. A blob now. And then I realized that it was not a large object, far away, but small, and already very close--only a few hundred feet off, dropping toward the top of our dome. A narrow, flat, ten-foot object, like a wingless volplane. There were no lights on it, but in the Earthlight I could see two crouching, helmeted figures riding it. "Anita! Don't you remember!" I was swept with dawning comprehension. Back in the Grantline camp Snap and I had discussed how to use the _Planetara's_ gravity plates. We had gone to the wreck and secured them, had rigged this little volplane flyer.... The brigands on the rocks saw it now. A flash went up at it. One of the figures crouching on it opened a flexible fabric like a wing over its side. I saw another flash from below, harmlessly striking the insulated shield. I gasped to Anita, "Light your helmet! It's from Grantline! Let them see us!" I stood erect. The little flying platform went over us, fifty feet up, circling, dropping to the dome-top. I waved my helmet-light. The exit-lock from below--up which we had come--was near us. The advancing brigands were already in it! I had forgotten to demolish the manuals. And I saw that the darkness down on the rocks was almost gone now, dissipating in the airless night. The brigands down there began firing up at us. It was a confusion of flashing lights. I clutched at Anita. "Come this way--run!" The platform barely missed our heads. It sailed lengthwise of the dome-top, and crashed silently on the central runway near the stern-tip. Anita and I ran to it. The two helmeted figures seized us, shoved us prone on the metal platform. It was barely four feet wide: a low railing, handles with which to cling, and a tiny hooded cubby in front, with banks of controls. "Gregg!" "Snap!" It was Snap and Venza. She seized Anita, held her crouching in place. Snap flung himself face down at the controls. The brigands in the lock were out on the dome now. I took a last shot as we lifted. My bullet punctured one of them; he fell, slid scrambling off the rounded dome and dropped out of sight.