And then Trent and the others were racing across the ground to the side of the fallen man. When they reached him, Mathieson came forward and knelt beside the figure. "Why, it's one of the guards!" he said in shocked surprise. And it was then that the strange feeling of foreboding hit Fred again. As he knelt beside the groaning guard, it swept over him in a chilling wave. He lifted the man's head from the ground and the guard opened his eyes. He recognized the face of Mathieson as the scientist looked anxiously in his direction. "Good heavens, man, what happened? You were ordered to leave five minutes before launching time!" The guard's mouth opened as he struggled to a sitting position. The man's hand reached up and touched the back of his head painfully. "Sir--Gaddon--Dr. Gaddon attacked me ..." There was a momentary stunned silence as the soldier's words sunk in on the gathered men. "_What?_" Mathieson's voice was incredulous. And as Trent watched the soldier nod his head, the suspicion he had felt suddenly overwhelmed him in a grim realization. Even as the soldier blurted out pain-filled words, Trent knew somehow what he was going to say. "Gaddon--he pulled a gun on me ... He forced me to the far side of number two--he said he was going up in the rocket--he said he had plans--then he hit me with the gun ... I came to when the rocket went off--I was away from the blasts, luckily ..." Then the soldier was standing on his feet again, swaying as he fought to clear his fogged senses. But Trent was no longer aware of the soldier. And he saw that Mathieson was no longer looking at the guard. For a brief instant their eyes met, and Trent saw a stunned look in the scientist's, then Fred's gaze swept up into the night. Up into the darkened sky where, miles above them, the hurtling rocket was even now reaching the apex of its flight. Up where a man rode on a perilous trip into the unknown. * * * * * Gaddon hunched in the darkness of the rocket, waiting. He had counted the remaining minutes off, one by one. And he knew that finally the moment was at hand. It would be too late now to stop him. They had not noticed his absence, and if they had, they would not delay the launching for him. He had taken that fact into consideration. And now that the moment was close to completion, he felt a glowing sense of triumph within him. He would now show those fools, and especially Mathieson. He would prove conclusively that cosmic rays were what he had said they were--a source of the energy of life, a fountain from which youth and vitality would pour, making his body immortal. He would go down in history as one of the greats of science. A man who had risked his life to prove his theory. A man who would be the first to achieve the goal of the ages, the dream of the philosophers, eternal life. The triumph would be his. _All_ his! And the rocket tubes exploded into sound.