"All that happened a week ago," Nitha laughed up into Elko's stubby, filthy, moon of a face, "and still you're grumbling. We got away didn't we?" "Almost there," Rurak said to Elko. "Around the second loop ahead of us lies the edge of the crystalline horde near which we landed. Before long we will be with our friends and then back to Mars. Home again, Elko!" Abruptly the ominous hushed sounds of the swamplands, the hum of insects and the raucous cries of the flying lizards among the treetops, was smashed across by a vast explosion. It was a continuous explosion that swelled louder as it continued, a rapid series of controlled blasts. "The _Tekna_!" cried Rurak in despair, "blasting off for Mars!" A long gleaming pencil of metal soared on a long slant into the sky overhead; the flame of her rocket jets boomed a thunderous farewell, and then the _Tekna_ was gone. Half-heartedly the five passengers of the little dugout took up their makeshift paddles and held to their course. At least there would be the plastic dome they had erected beside the _Tekna_ to prevent the overcrowding of the ship and perhaps there would be a stock of provisions and weapons left behind for Rurak if he should ever find his way back to the coast. The dome was still standing although blackened somewhat by the blast of the takeoff. Into the dome the Martians hurried to find it well stocked with all sorts of provisions and equipment. There was a message left there too in a heavy transparent case bolted to one of the uprights supporting the dome. "Listen to this, Nitha!" cried Rurak. "They made contact with your father's crew after all. The time was too near for them to wait for us--the New Year you know--so they blasted off for Mars with your father. And next year, or the year after, another expedition will come to Earth. Until then...." "Yes," asked Nitha, smiling, "until then?" Rurak felt the warmth of her woman's body beside him as he looked around the snug little dome. Tis and Thod were clicking softly together near the entrance and Elko Sohm was squinting along the sights of an automatic rocket rifle. "Two more years in this blue hell," he groaned hopelessly. "An old man like me abandoned here on this sponge of a world!" End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Queen of the Blue World, by Basil Wells