I said gently, "Don't be so frightened. Dr. Frank will take care of you. There is no danger; you will be safer on the asteroid than here on the ship." I leaned down and touched her shoulder. "There is no danger." I was between Venza and the open cabin. Venza whispered swiftly, "When we are landing, Gregg, I want you to make a commotion--anything--just as the women go ashore." "Why? Of course you will have food, Mrs. Francis." "Never mind details! An instant--just confusion. Go, Gregg--don't speak now!" I raised the child. "You take care of Mother." I kissed her. From across the cabin, Miko's sardonic voice made me turn. "Touching sentimentality, Haljan! Get to your post in the turret!" His rasping note of annoyance brooked no delay. I set the child down. I said, "I will land us in an hour. Depend on it." Hahn was at the controls when Moa and I reached the turret. "You will land us safely, Haljan?" he demanded anxiously. I pushed him away. "Miko wants you in the lounge." "You take command here?" "Yes. I am no more anxious for a crash than you are, Hahn." He sighed with relief. "That is true, of course. I am no expert at atmospheric entry." "Have no fear. Sit down, Moa." I waved to the lookout in the forward watch tower, and got his routine gesture. I rang the corridor bells, and the normal signals came promptly back. I turned to Hahn. "Get along, won't you? Tell Miko that things are all right here." Hahn's small dark figure, lithe as a leopard in his tight fitting trousers and jacket with his robe now discarded, went swiftly down the spider incline and across the deck. "Moa, where is Snap? By the infernal--if he has been injured--" Up on the radio room bridge, the brigand guard still sat. Then I saw that Snap was out there sitting with him. I waved from the turret window, and Snap's cheery gesture answered me. His voice carried down through the silver moonlight: "Land us safely, Gregg. These weird amateur navigators!" Within the hour I had us dropping into the asteroid's atmosphere. The ship heated steadily. The pressure went up. It kept me busy with the instruments and the calculations. But my signals were always promptly answered from below. The brigand crew did its part efficiently. At a hundred and fifty thousand feet I shifted the gravity plates to the landing combinations, and started the electronic engines. "All safe, Gregg?" Moa sat at my elbow; her eyes, with what seem a glow of admiration in them, followed my busy routine activities. "Yes. The crew works well." The electronic streams flowed out like a rocket tail behind us. The _Planetara_ caught their impetus. In the rarefied air, our bow lifted slightly, like a ship riding a gentle ground swell. At a hundred thousand feet we sailed gently forward, hull down to the asteroid's surface, cruising to seek a landing space.