"Cheer up," he told her, not noticing her nervousness. "I've just swiped the entire batch--the whole shooting match. Now we can work this out all by ourselves." Virginia nodded vaguely. Bronson noticed her uncertainty. "I've just expanded the field of focus or whatever it's called that used to transmit stuff from one temporal plane to the other--and I've shoved you, me, building, foot, horse and marines into Earth Two to get away from that gang." Virginia recoiled mentally. After all the mad work, the planning, the acceptance of a plan intended to place her in a more desirable future, here she was right back in Earth Two--doomed once more to the creeping atomic flame. CHAPTER XII _Dawn in Flame_ Virginia followed Bronson down to the laboratory in a daze, and she comprehended only about one half of what he was saying. The one thing that she did not understand was why he knew nothing of Earth Two. She believed she had sent him there and the double transfer should have awakened him. That should have left him aware of his transfer to Earth Three when Kingston kidnaped him. Kingston could have told her that the bright sky light she saw in her half-state had been but the temporarily-transferred atomic flame but Kingston was not there. So instead of wanting to kill her summarily for her double-cross, Ed Bronson still believed that she was originally of Earth One, had been kidnaped as he had been. Virginia did find it a bit amusing--perhaps it was the hysteria that acts as a safety valve when things are so unreasonable that the mind will not accept them without seeking its funny side. Dawn was breaking as Bronson finished his explanation and, as the light increased, he turned to the equipment and said, "We've got this all to ourselves here. I couldn't find your crystal on Earth One--and besides, if Kingston can flange up some means of detecting the presence of the stuff on Earth One, there'd be but that one to detect. "And I couldn't set this mausoleum down on Earth One near any city street. No room. I'm assuming that your diggings are in the city?" He did not wait for Virginia to answer, but turned to the equipment and started to look it over in earnest. "This," he said, "I've got to know more about." Virginia could have told him but she merely nodded vaguely and said nothing. She thought it over. "Have you any hope at all of saving your world?" she asked--and then gasped because she had not said "our world." She might have saved her fear, for he did not notice. "Some," he said, straightening up from the gear and looking at her with a half smile. "Do I sound disloyal," she said tremulously, "if I suggest that if Earth Three wins we have the means here to join them?" Virginia hoped to gain some idea of his feelings on the subject so that she could calculate his intentions.