Nothing was visible but cloud, thick, clinging. The mountains, thrusting up into Venus' cloud sheath, were perpetually mantled with the gray vapor. The deep throated roar of a waterfall beat at their ears like thunder. Cosmo slid off the Ormoo's back, shouted at Mia to jump. His voice was drowned in the waterfall. A dash of spray struck his face. He felt for her ankle, yanked. She came tumbling into his arms with a scream. Cosmo laughed, bore her lightly across the jumble of sticks which was the Ormoo's nest, down a long slippery flight of steps descending into the chasm. Spray drenched them both. The roar was unbearable. He paused, fumbled at a section of the cliff. A door swung inward, revealing a long low chamber hewn from the living rock. Cosmo carried the wet and shivering girl across the threshold. Fog swirled about them like steam from a turkish bath. He set her on her feet, shut the door. The roar of the waterfall was blotted out. Only the hissing of gas jets which lighted the chamber disturbed the silence. "My private entrance." He surveyed his prize. The wet yellow tunic revealed every subtle curve. "You're a handsome wench, Mia." Mia MacIver frowned. "Entrance to what?" "The Renegade's abode. The mountain's honeycombed with caves. Come on." But Mia hung back dubiously. "What are you going to do with me?" He eyed the suspicious girl, said solemnly: "Oh, the usual thing." "The usual thing?" She swallowed. "That's what I was afraid of!" * * * * * "You're easily resigned," he observed dryly, and urged her toward the door at the rear of the chamber. "You need to get out of that wet tunic." He grinned, regarded the rent in the back of the garment. "It isn't doing its duty any longer anyway." "I think you're horrible!" She grabbed the tear together, sidled crabwise through the door, her cheeks hot. Cosmo followed chuckling. A long narrow corridor burrowed ahead of them straight into the heart of the mountain. Flaring gas jets hissed at regular intervals along the walls. All at once the grin was wiped from his face. He seized Mia's arm, said: "Hold it!" Mia bit her lip, gasped. Three men had edged into the corridor from a bisecting passage. They were huge, almost seven feet tall with skin a vivid blue. They were quite naked and the muscles bulged beneath their blue hides. "Jovian Dawn Men!" Mia whispered. "My God! They're running amok!" Cosmo felt the cold breath of death blow up his spine. His hand slid automatically to his shoulder holster. It was empty. With a curse, he remembered that it had been taken by the Blue Venus. Her dart gun, he'd tossed aside, once free of the Bemmelman plantation. The three naked giants minced daintily closer, nostrils flaring as they caught their scent. "They're not amok," he said over his shoulder. "The rutting season is months off yet. There's something else behind this."