There was a chance, however, that if Stokely found himself stoutly opposed by both Dr. Grimwood and Archer, he might hesitate to kill them both out of hand, at least until he could be certain of finding the jade deposit. Double murder is a long step for a man with no previous criminal record. Archer made his decision. "You can count me out," he said flatly, watching Stokely's face for a reaction. "That badlands where the find is supposed to be is a tough place to land a ship, so I'll put her down on behalf of all of us--but also on the condition that you'll release Dr. Grimwood and myself immediately. It'll take us weeks to reach civilization, _if_ we're lucky. That ought to give you all the time you need. But I want your guarantee--otherwise, I'll have nothing to lose by trying to cross you up, if it kills us all." The bluff evidently carried a certain amount of purely psychological weight, for Stokely seemed a little taken aback, and his blustering smile lacked full confidence. "Honest Will Archer!" he said scornfully. "The pride of the company! You're in a hell of a position to bargain!" He went on in a more serious tone: "But it sounds good enough. You get us down, the doctor helps us find the jade--he's the only one who knows much about the stuff--and then the two of you can start out. Who knows--you might even make it!" He grinned. It sounded as if--at the moment--Stokely regarded the proposition as an easy way out for himself. For Archer and the doctor, it would not be so easy. There would be at least two hundred miles of fearfully rugged terrain, infested by predatory and poisonous animals, insects and plants. It would be both hot and dangerous to travel by day--and downright foolhardy by night. And even this dim prospect depended on the slight scruples of a thoroughly egocentric individual. It was not enough. Archer resolved to keep his faculties on the alert for any loophole that might occur. * * * * * But Stokely's vigilance had not slackened when, hours later, they approached the atmosphere at a speed slightly greater than that of the planet's rotation, and within an estimated five hundred miles of the coordinates shown on the dead men's chart. Stokely left Evans in Dr. Grimwood's chair, with the strict injunction not to remove his eyes from Archer, and took the doctor with him to the engine compartment. Thereafter, Archer was obliged to give his entire attention to the business of angling the ship sharply into the atmosphere and opposing its thrust to the resultant of deceleration, gravity and air resistance, a function which was only semi-automatic, and needed constant correction. The first landmark shown on the map, a jagged and mighty canyon, presently appeared between scattered clouds below. Archer set the ship's angle nearer to the horizontal, allowing gravity to pull it into a steeper descent.