Wales' thoughts leaped. He pulled open the door and went out to his car fast. In a moment he was driving on downtown, his hopes suddenly high. "The Castle." That was what, when they were all kids, they had called the old hilltop mansion of an ancient great-aunt of the Kendricks'. They had given it that name because of its 1900-ish wooden tower with a crenellated top, that had fascinated them. Of a sudden, checking his elation, there came to Wales the sure knowledge that Martha had been _afraid_, when she wrote that direction. Afraid to leave a more definite clue, than that one that only a few people could possibly understand. "But she didn't leave that for me--" Wales thought, puzzledly. "As far as they knew, I was still on Mars. But then, for whom?" He began to worry more deeply than before. He had found a clue to the Kendricks, a clue that Fairlie's agents had been unable to understand, but the careful obscurity of it made their disappearance suddenly more sinister. Wales drove fast through the familiar old hometown streets. He noticed, as he swung around the Diamond, that one store had a brave sign chalked on its window, "Closed for Doomsday". He swung right, up North Jefferson Street, then on up the steep hill that was the highest point of Castletown. He was wire-tense with hope when he parked in front of the old wooden monstrosity of a mansion. Everything was dark here, too. His hopes fell a little as he went up the tree-lined walk. Still, people would be careful about showing light-- Something exploded in the back of Wales' head, and his face hit the ground hard. CHAPTER V Wales regained a foggy consciousness, to become aware that someone close to him was sobbing. He felt that he had to get up. There was something he must do. He had very little time, the end of Earth was rushing upon him, and there was someone he must find. He _must_ move, get up.... "Jay," said a voice somewhere. "It's me. _Me!_ Martha." Wales got his eyes open, and saw a dark figure bending over him, and he threshed his arms numbly, trying to push it away, trying to get up, to fight. "Jay!" A flashlight beam suddenly sprang into being right above him, almost dazzling him. Then, his vision clearing, he saw that the beam was not on his face but on the face that bent above him. A girl's face, quite familiar, framed by dark, hair, but with tears running down it. Martha Kendrick's face. The beam went out and the darkness was upon them again. Wales found he was lying on damp grass, one hand resting on a concrete walk. He saw trees and a big house with a crenellated wooden tower, against the stars. "Martha," he muttered. "So you were here. But there's someone else--someone slugged me--" Her voice came uncertainly. "That was me, Jay. I--I might have killed you--" He didn't understand at all. But, as his brain began to clear a little, he became aware of a pounding headache.