"Not on the last day of a world." "Lock it up," Telt grumbled. "You give me the crawls. I know they're going to be blasted. But at least I know I did everything I could to stop it. How do you think they are going to be feeling at home--on Nyjord--from tomorrow on?" "Maybe we can still stop it?" Brion said, shrugging off the feeling of gloom, Telt's only answer was a wordless sound of disgust. By the time they had cut a large loop in the desert the sun was high in the sky, the daily heat begun. Their course took them through a chain of low, flinty hills that cut their speed almost to zero. They ground ahead in low gear while Telt sweated and cursed, struggling with the controls. Then they were on firm sand and picking up speed towards the city. As soon as Brion saw Hovedstad clearly he felt a clutch of fear. From somewhere in the city a black plume of smoke was rising. It could have been one of the deserted buildings aflame, a minor blaze. Yet the closer they came, the greater the tension grew. Brion didn't dare put it into words himself, it was Telt who vocalized the thought. "A fire or something. Coming from your area, somewhere close to your building." Within the city they saw the first signs of destruction. Broken rubble on the streets. The smell of greasy smoke in their nostrils. More and more people appeared, going in the same direction they were. The normally deserted streets of Hovedstad were now almost crowded. Disans, obvious by their bare shoulders, mixed with the few offworlders who still remained. Brion made sure the tarpaulin was well wrapped around the body before they pushed slowly through the growing crowd. "I don't like all this publicity," Telt complained, looking at the people. "It's the last day, or I'd be turning back. They know our cars, we've raided them often enough." Turning a corner he braked suddenly. Ahead was destruction. Black, broken rubble had been churned into desolation. It was still smoking, pink tongues of flame licking over the ruins. A fragment of wall fell with a rumbling crash. "It's your building--the Foundation building!" Telt shouted. "They've been here ahead of us, must have used the radio to call a raid. They did a job, explosive of some kind." Hope was dead. Dis was dead. In the ruin ahead, mixed and broken with the other rubble, were the bodies of all the people who had trusted him. Lea. Beautiful and cruelly dead Lea. Dr. Stine, his patients, Faussel, all of them. He had kept them on this planet and now they were dead. Every one of them. Dead. Murderer! [Illustration: Illustrated by van Dongen] XIV