Dan Parker's mouth twisted in anger and helpless frustration. "So you think Sam Taber's a better man than your husband? So you have more respect for him than you have for me?" "I'm afraid I do--at the moment." Jane spoke quietly and there was a distant regard in her eyes. "Will you go, Dan? Or will I?" "I forbid you to go kiting off across the desert--" "You go, or I will." "All right--I'll go." Jane stood in the yard watching the tail light of the jeep fade off toward the Circle-7. There was a stark misery in her heart--a bleak unhappiness she had never before known. "It's not Dan--not Dan at all!" she whispered fiercely. Then she ran back to the porch and sat down on the steps and began to cry. But not for long. She came erect suddenly. Biddy was not home yet! She was out there in the desert. A drunken mob was moving out there somewhere. With a choked cry, Jane Parker ran off into the night. After a while she began calling--"Biddy--Biddy baby--where are you? Where are you?" But the stars were silent and the night was silent too.... * * * * * Joe had heard the sounds of the approaching crowd. He came from the cave where he had just got the report of zero-minute two hours away and waited in front of the cave. He looked up into the heavens from where, very shortly, a small, dark ship would arc in and settle quietly down. The headlights of the car leading the crowd cut two paths through the night and he stepped out into their radiance. Instantly an unpleasant voice barked, "You there! Stand still. Don't move. I've got you covered." From curiosity rather than fear, Joe remained where he was. The voice and the harsh discordant vibrations from the crowd in the background fascinated him. What sort of a demonstration was this? What strange primitive motivations generated the black aura about these people? A scowling figure emerged from the gloom and peered over his shoulder into the cave. "What you got in there?" "The equipment I brought with me." "Where'd you bring it from?" The mob was straining forward to hear and a baleful silence waited to be broken by Joe's answer. "From the Galaxy--well, the Galaxy Capital I suppose you'd call it." "Where the hell's that?" "I don't think you could understand if I told you." "Is that so? Well, I'm not as stupid as you think, buster. You've snuck in here from the East somewhere. You've been pretty damn clever, but no Eastern fifth column is going to get a foothold in my territory. You come along with me. You got some questions to answer." An ugly tremor went through the crowd. It raced from drunk to drunk and influenced even the sober. Fear mixed with panic. "See that stuff in there?" "Lousy Eastern fifth columnist." "Brought his equipment with him." "Bet it is something to blow up our space station just like they said."