Followed by Barger and Kindt, he set out toward the wrecked liner. The going was rough, uncertain, over the great jagged meteors. They were forced to leap from rock to rock, skirt huge meteorites. Small stones rolled and slipped under their feet and once Barger fell through a space between two of the dark ferrous rocks, was saved only by gripping a projecting ledge, hanging on with torn hands until the others dragged him up to safety. * * * * * Sliding, stumbling over the rubble, Haller kept his gaze on the _Cosmic_. The liner was badly battered, her nose crumpled as if she had crashed on landing. Haller forged ahead grimly through the gray half-light of the twilight zone that lay between darkside and sunside of the mad little world. Past ship after ship they toiled, rusty freighters, queer century-old exploring craft, gaunt skeletons of vessels half-buried in the débris. No signs of life were visible aboard the _Cosmic_ as they drew near. Haller's face was a strained mask. "Cap'n!" Barger paused, his gray-stubbled face drawn. "Look! Out there!" Haller turned, staring, but there was nothing to be seen except the shattered rocks, the desolate, silent ships. "Well?" he said sharply. "What was it?" "Thought I saw something moving over yonder," Barger muttered. "Queer-looking figure that was human and still wasn't. Nerves, I guess, or this damned shadowy light." "Sure. Nerves." Haller moved ahead impatiently. What would he find aboard the _Cosmic_? What had happened to those on the wrecked vessel? The silent, dust-shrouded liner loomed above them, now. One of her airlocks was curiously fused, blackened, and nearly twisted from its massive hinges. Haller seized the flush-sunk ring bolt and, followed by his companions, drew himself into the ship. The _Cosmic's_ main saloon was a scene of desolation. The crash landing had hurled furniture, bric-a-brac, luxurious decorations into a jumbled heap. Amidst this shattered débris lay several gaunt skeletons, clad in the uniform of the Trans-Jovian line. "Funny!" Kindt muttered. "Look!" He pointed to the atomite guns clutched in the bony hands. "Why guns?" "Mutiny, maybe," Haller said with grim emphasis. "Common failing, it seems! Let's go on!" They moved along the companionway, toward the rear of the ship. Dark, silent, there was something eerie about the deserted vessel. Like a ghost ship, it seemed, a weird metal tomb. Already rust was beginning to flake the walls, and a moldering smell of decomposition filled the air. The footsteps of the three men echoed hollowly along the dank corridors, and in the light of Barger's _astralux_ torch, grotesque shadows slid along the walls. Death, decay, hung like a pall about the _Cosmic_ and Haller, thinking of Fay, was a tight-lipped specter. "Kind of gives me the creeps, this packet," Barger muttered. "We...." He broke off, listening. "Did you hear something just then? Like soft footsteps?"