Among the trees across the road the dogs were still fighting. One of the Noth dogs lay motionless, torn and bleeding. Atal and Rotan together were attacking the other--the three rolling and tumbling as they bit and tore at each other, their huge bodies trampling down the banana trees as they fought. "Dee, could I use the thunderbolt on them?" She shook her head. "Wait." It lasted only a moment more; the second Noth dog was down, with Atal's fangs buried in its throat. The two dogs came leaping back to their mistress, their bodies torn, and matted with dirt and blood. Dee patted them affectionately as they stood licking their wounds. "But you should have minded me," she said. George had taken one look at the two charred figures lying in the road; he drew the girl away. "Come on. I wouldn't look over there. We must hurry, Dee." They mounted the dogs and started forward, more slowly this time, for the animals carried them with difficulty. Again George remembered. Toroh would be at the Orleen Cavern by this time. They had lost! This delay had been the one unexpected thing that could defeat them. "Dee--" But the girl had anticipated him. "They are in the plane." She half whispered the words. "Azeela has been trying to tell me for a long time. Toroh had a spy at the cavern entrance, a man whom we trust as a Scientist. He let them in--Azeela had no chance to make an outcry. They are in the plane now. Azeela telling Toroh she cannot operate it. Wait! Now he's trying the proton switch himself." A silence. "Dee! What is it?" George pleaded. She shook her head. "Nothing comes. Nothing!" The connection was broken! Azeela was carried back into time. Had something stopped her message? Would her thought-bond with her sister hold across the centuries that now separated them? George could only ask himself these questions with a sinking heart. If the bond would not hold, then Azeela was lost to them forever. Lost to Loto, who loved her. And Toroh would get his weapons and win the war--_inevitably_. "Nothing yet, Dee?" "No." They rode slowly onward. At last Dee gave a cry of joy. "It comes again! She is all right, George! _All right!_" Her voice rose in triumph and thankfulness. George thumped Atal to urge the dog forward. "Then we must hurry, Dee. They're going back into time?" "Yes. Azeela is looking at the dials. Twenty-five years back now. She tells us to hurry. She will watch the dials and let me know where they are. Toroh does not suspect anything. He is gloating. He thinks he has won everything." At last they were ascending the slope to the mouth of the cavern. The yawning hole showed black in the face of the cliff. On the small platform above the mouth, a single light disclosed the figures of three guards sitting there. In the moonlight the guards saw them coming. A bolt of lightning flashed downward across the black hole; a peal of thunder rolled out.