Actually, I was being needlessly alarmed. After all, I was armed. What did I have to fear from a moonstruck old man? Nevertheless, I had an uneasy picture of him standing near, waiting for the turmoil to subside, his face gaunt and shadowed by a heavy beard. For once I wished I had the Noble's ability to see in the dark. Minutes passed while the drumming drained slowly away. "I'm glad that's over," said Abrogado. "I have some questions to ask you. I have been isolated in the desert for many months. You are the first human I have seen for a long while." "Go ahead," I said, absently. I was wondering just how the missing prospectors had been trapped. I pictured Nobles crouching in a cave, waiting for one of the poor devils to enter. But that wasn't likely. Their bodies were formed of large cartilage-like sections which were too rigid to permit them to crouch or kneel. Physiologically, they had but two choices: to draw themselves up to their full height of fifteen feet, or to lie flat upon the ground. In reply to Abrogado's questions, I chatted lightly about the new shops and homes, and the population figures as shown in the latest census of Marsport. Abrogado asked: "Have you seen the new interstellar ship?" "_The Stellar Missile?_" I nodded; "Yes, I've seen it. They're still putting the finishing touches on it--painting, insulating, and so on." The existence of the great ship, long under secret construction, had just been revealed to the populaces of the Inner Worlds. It was being constructed on Mars as it would be easier to lift from the red planet than from Earth. The nose of _The Stellar Missile_ was pointed outward in the general, but specifically unknown, direction of the home planet of the Nobles. "What star is it investigating first?" asked Abrogado. "Oh, a very likely star," I said, "considering the evidence. Sirius." "So it is Mira?" mused the other. "I know little of astronomy, but it doesn't seem a likely star to me." I touched the open face of my watch, feeling the hands. I knew that in a few minutes it would be--not dawn, but daylight. Because of its light atmospheric envelope there is no true twilight, or dawn on Mars. The sun just suddenly waxes into brightness in about the same length of time as it takes the glow in a television tube to wane into darkness. And so, in a few minutes, I would see my companion for the first time. "I have an idea," I said, "as to how we can deal with the Nobles when we find them." "Yes?" asked Abrogado. "Mind if I sit down?" I asked. I loosened my harness, unbuckled my belt. "Have you heard of J-bombs?" I said, and dropped. Before I struck the floor my gun-weighted hand had leapt out, and the silence was shredded by a staccato blast of sound. I jack-knifed upwards, holding the trigger tight against the butt emptying destruction into the night with desperate haste.