"Why, I suppose I am," Janus said. "Either me or Professor Brownell, here." "Professor?" Her mind seemed to grope for the meaning. "Ah! That word means a man of scientific learning, does it not?" "In this case, yes," he answered. Brownell spoke softly. "Madam, we come in peace. We want to be friends and we want to help you, if we may. You need have no suspicion of us." "No suspicion? You come from the dark side! From the Perlacs!" She spat the last word venomously. Donli, standing there, seemed troubled. He said: "We only found them near the twilight zone. They were most friendly in manner and speech! They seem--" Man waved a hand, and he was silent. She said: "Men of Earth, you wonder why I am suspicious? Know, then, that we observed your ship five days ago, crossing our land with tremendous speed and heading for the dark side! Why have you waited until now to come here? It could be that you have allied yourselves with the Perlacs! Have they sent you here?" There was a moment of stupefied silence. They could scarcely believe that she was serious, but her cold manner assured them of it. Then the answer must have dawned on all of them at once. "Ketrik!" Janus boomed, hoisting his big frame from the chair. "By all that's holy, he did reach here! She must have seen Ketrik's ship!" Then he sobered. "But--if it was streaking for the dark side, it was surely out of control. Ketrik must be dead by now. To think I'd live to see the day when that man blanked out." Mari had drawn a strange looking pistol from a belt at her waist. She gestured with it now and said: "Be seated, please. We will talk yet a while. This Ketrik--he is another one from Earth?" "Yes, he came before us. Came alone. We only landed here today, a few hours ago! Believe me, we want no part of those Perlacs. We had a little trouble with them." She seemed relieved, and satisfied at last. "Forgive my suspicion of you. But where the safety of my people is concerned, I cannot be too careful. We have had trouble with the Perlacs, always. The greatest trouble is yet to come and it is brewing fast." She appeared to be marshalling her thoughts, then she went on: "We are the seventh generation of a party of Earth people who arrived here hundreds of years ago. My direct ancestor, Wilm Frell, was leader of that expedition. Our city is named in his honor!" "I've got it!" Mark exclaimed. "She means William Farrell! The Farrell expedition was one of the earliest and most ambitious interstellar attempts. Men had already reached the moon and were trying for Mars. Farrell set out with a hundred men and women aboard--" "A hundred and forty," Mari corrected. "We have his log here. They missed Mars, their compasses were wrecked in the asteroids and they continued outward for months, finally crashing here. We still do not know what planet this is!" "You're beyond Pluto!" Brownell told her. "But how could they have survived a crash on this heavy world?"