A figure detached itself from the huddled groups working the pumps and shuffled to the foot of the ladder. He pointed silently. Following his gesture, the pair looked at a corner of the bulkhead wall. A tear appeared, widened and ran down diagonally across the metal. Plates peeled off and fell like wax-paper crumbling in heat. Great blisters were rising on the surface of the wall. One broke and gouts of molten metal streamed down and spattered in a puddle. An uneasy suggestion of flow, of readjustment, of movement ran over the metal facing. More plates were grunting and buckling. They fell softly inward. More followed, dissolving rapidly as they came pelting down. "Watch yourself!" Norman screamed. "She's going." [Illustration: _The place was an inferno. "She's going!" Norman yelled._] Liquid metal bubbled and spit. Runnels of magma pursued the retreating crewmen. A fiery surface lapped at the foot of the ladder. Failles made an aimless gesture. "Get your men out of here," rasped Norman. The huddle of dark figures broke and ran for the ladder. Air was blowing out of the hold in a shrill, whining scream. Norman was the last out. He slammed and clamped the door just as a rush of molten metal crashed against it. "Keep fighting it," Norman ordered. "Compartment by compartment." Walking was easier now that acceleration had begun to build into an approximation of normal gravity. Norman made his way back into the control room. Crankily, the wreck of the Tellus swung through space. The forward drive jets were still functioning. Merrill shook his head as the framework and bulkheads creaked and groaned under the strain of acceleration. "It'll be a miracle if she holds together an hour," he ground out. "If it doesn't, we can stop worrying," Norman told him bluntly. "Have you an Interplanetary Astronaut for this sector?" Merrill nodded toward the shelf where books were clamped. Norman unsnapped Volume IV, and opened it to HIDALGO. Most of the information, especially astronomical data, he already knew; but a line at the bottom of the page caught his eye. _It is recommended that spaceships avoid this asteroid. Exploration has been impossible, for a number of reasons, and official charting expeditions have failed to return. No data available._ He read the notation aloud to the others. "What do you suppose it means?" he asked. "Could be that rough terrain and unstable rotation make a take-off impossible," Harald suggested. Merrill's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so. Some of the other asteroids have been difficult enough that way. No, there's something different about Hidalgo. Maybe it's some kind of deadly radiations. I've thought a lot about it." "You knew this all the time? Why didn't you say something about it?"