"It is obvious that this is a dangerous mission. I'm ordering none of you to go. Any man who wishes to be relieved from landing duty may remain inside the ship, and may feel it no reproach. Those who do go should be constantly on the alert, and keep in formation; the usual column of twos. Be very careful, when stepping out of the ship, to adjust your stride to the lessened gravity of this small world. Watch this point!" I turned to Dival, motioned him to fall in at my side. Without a backward glance, we marched out of the ship, treading very carefully to keep from leaping into the air with each step. Twenty feet away, I glanced back. There were fourteen men behind me--not a man of the landing crew had remained in the ship! "I am proud of you men!" I thought heartily: and no emanation from any menore was ever more sincere. * * * * * Cautiously, eyes roving ceaselessly, we made our way towards the two silent ships. It seemed a quiet, peaceful world: an unlikely place for tragedy. The air was fresh and clean, although, as Dival had predicted, rarefied like the air at an altitude. The willow-like trees that hemmed us in rustled gently, their long, frond-like branches with their rusty green leaves swaying. "Do you notice, sir," came a gentle thought from Dival, an emanation that could hardly have been perceptible to the men behind us, "that there is no wind--and yet the trees, yonder, are swaying and rustling?" I glanced around, startled. I had not noticed the absence of a breeze. I tried to make my response reassuring: "There is probably a breeze higher up, that doesn't dip down into this little clearing," I ventured. "At any rate, it is not important. These ships are what interest me. What will we find there?" "We shall soon know," replied Dival. "Here is the _Dorlos_; the second of the two, was it not?" "Yes." I came to a halt beside the gaping door. There was no sound within, no evidence of life there, no sign that men had ever crossed that threshold, save that the whole fabric was the work of man's hands. "Mr. Dival and I will investigate the ship, with two of you men," I directed. "The rest of the detail will remain on guard, and give the alarm at the least sign of any danger. You first two men, follow us." The indicated men nodded and stepped forward. Their "Yes, sirs" came surging through my menore like a single thought. Cautiously, Dival at my side, the two men at our backs, we stepped over the high threshold into the interior of the _Dorlos_. The _ethon_ tubes overhead made everything as light as day, and since the _Dorlos_ was a sister ship of my own _Kalid_, I had not the slightest difficulty in finding my way about. There was no sign of a disturbance anywhere. Everything was in perfect order. From the evidence, it would seem that the officers and men of the _Dorlos_ had deserted the ship of their own accord, and--failed to return.