Haller, supporting the girl, nodded grimly, plodded on. The rain of meteors was at its height now, and the entire plain seemed to be exploding. A great liner, lying ahead, disappeared in a shower of débris as a great stone struck it; another, beside it, was completely buried under the rubble and wreckage. A scene of sheer horror, the plain, shrouded in dust, lit by incessant flashes of light, the loose stones of its surface sliding and rumbling with each new shock. As the three fugitives reeled onward, one of the missiles landed nearby in a blinding flash, a gust of heat. Hurled to the ground, Haller was half-buried by a hail of splintered stone. Blindly, groggily, he picked himself up, pulled Fay to her feet, and, aided by the bruised and bloody Barger, pushed on. [Illustration: _Staggering over the heaving, shifting bed of stone, Haller felt as though he were in an inferno. The heat was overpowering._] With startling suddenness the storm of meteors ceased. Two or three belated thuds, and there was only the pall of dust, the wrecked spaceships, the great craters, to mark its path. "Short and sweet," Barger grunted. "You don't carry a rabbit's foot, do you, Cap'n? How we ever got through that barrage alive!" He glanced back. Luminous figures were streaming from the caverns. "Here come our boy-friends, hell-bent!" Haller peered through the swirling dust. The stumpy, battered shape of the _Lodestar_ was visible not a hundred yards ahead. "You see, Fay?" he laughed jubilantly. "She's not much of a ship but her hull's tough enough to hold off atomite guns and we've food enough for months. Maybe by that time we can figure out a way to break the magnetic grip!" She nodded, the color returning to her cheeks, quickened her pace. Behind them faint shouts of rage were audible, and a few blue bolts of energy tore up the rocks nearby. The distance was too great for accurate shooting; and a moment later the three fugitives had swung into the freighter's airlock. "So!" Haller wiped a paste of sweat and dust from his forehead. "Barger, see that all ports are secure. Replace that smashed one in the control room with a spare from the stores. We're in for a seige!" As Barger made fast the heavy glassex ports, Haller and the girl closed the massive lock. Howls of rage from outside announced the presence of their pursuers. A moment later several spots on the steel hull glowed red under atomite blasts. "Let 'em have their fun," Haller grinned. "There's not enough juice in their guns to melt the steel, and as long as we keep away from the outer walls, we don't get burned! Right now the one thing that interests me is a sandwich and...." "Cap'n!" Old Barger rattled down the companionway steps, his face gray. "Big guns! Look!"