"Get hold of the machine, reverse the process. Make it form clouds, great big woolly ones. Start a rain that'll make the Deluge look sick; forty days--a year--and we'll drown them all," Wat cried. "Exactly," Hilary nodded. "Joan darling, you and Wat get into the _Vagabond_, and wait for us. Grim and I will take care of the laboratory." "What?" Tyler ejaculated. "Leave me cooped up when there's a fight on. I'm coming." "So am I," Joan was pale but determined. "Oh, Lord," Hilary groaned. "Listen to me, please," he said patiently. "Time is precious, and I can't argue. Joan, you would only be a hindrance. I for one would be thinking more of protecting you than fighting. As for you, Wat," he turned to the furious bantam, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to take orders. The _Vagabond_ must be guarded. If we're cut off, we're through. And there's Joan." "Well. If you want to put it that way," Wat grumbled. "I knew you'd be sensible," Hilary said hurriedly, not giving them a chance to change their minds. "At the slightest alarm, take off. Don't try to rescue us if we don't return. The Earth cause is more important than any individual. If you get caught, too, the revolt will be leaderless; at an end." The men shook hands gravely. Joan, white-faced, kissed Hilary passionately. "Be careful, my dear." * * * * * Then the two men were gone, moving cautiously down the corridor with deadened footfalls. Hilary had retrieved his automatic; Grim had his more modern dynol pistol. The guard had been thrust into a corner, bound, unnoticed. The laboratory was on the floor below. They trod carefully down the inclined ramp connecting all the floors. The corridors, the ramp, were deserted. "All out fighting," Hilary whispered. "The revolt must be spreading." Grim swore. "The idiots. I told them not to start anything until I returned. They'll be wiped out--they weren't ready." Hilary nodded slowly. He thought of the strange heat while he had been captive. There would be very few Earthmen left alive in Great New York now. They were at the foot of the ramp now. Just ahead gleamed an open slide. A pale-blue light streamed out at them; in the oblong of the interior they could see moving shapes, weirdly cut off, crossing their field of vision; bright gleaming machines, segments of tremendous tubes flooded with the pale-blue light. And over all was a constant hum, a crackling, a whining of spinning parts. The laboratory! CHAPTER IX _The Weather Machine_ The two men flattened themselves against the wall so that they could not be seen by a casual glance from the Mercutians inside the laboratory. "There are a lot of them," Grim whispered. "Can't help it," Hilary answered grimly. "Have to take our chances." "Of course," Grim said simply. There was no backing out.