The whole village was spread before them now. Rick could even see the cross street that ran below the base of the cliff, and he knew they must be nearly within sight of the shelf on which the scientists were imprisoned. "Tough section below," Scotty whispered so low that Rick could barely hear him. "I think it drops off sheer." Another dozen feet of slow progress proved that Scotty was right. There was a small shelf, then the slope dropped away abruptly. Both boys lay flat, and slowly inched up to the drop and looked over. Rick felt Scotty's hand grip his arm like an iron clamp at the same moment that he realized that another shelf was directly below, a tiny campfire burning on it! But that wasn't what Scotty had seen. At a point off to their right, and only slightly below them was a second, smaller shelf. On it sat a pirate guard, rifle across his knees, staring out to sea. Rick swallowed his heart, which had climbed into his throat. They were in plain sight of the guard, or at least their heads were. He backed away as rapidly as the rough surface allowed, until the guard was no longer in sight. He and Scotty held a whispered exchange, their voices no louder than a zephyr. "Keep your eyes off him," Rick said. "He may feel someone looking at him." "Right. He's in a wonderful position. He looks down on the shelf where the fire is located. Did you see the ladder?" Rick hadn't. "It leads from his perch to the shelf. I suppose ladders lead down to the ground from there." The guard was an obstacle Rick hadn't expected. He wondered if the guard on duty last night had seen him slug the pirate, and he decided it didn't make much difference. As Zircon had said, they had to assume the whole colony was alerted. "Let's look out one at a time," he whispered. "I didn't see anyone on the ledge." He inched forward once more and put his head over the edge of the drop. The fire on the rocky shelf was a small one, probably only a cooking fire. There wasn't anyone in sight. He guessed the scientists must be in a cave under the rock on which he crouched. He could only hope they were awake. Rick estimated the situation. It was perhaps thirty feet down to the shelf. The guard was ten feet below, and twenty feet to his right. He noticed that the guard didn't look down at the shelf. He was awake, but his attention was focused outward. In all probability he was a lookout rather than a guard, watching for signs of ship movement to the west, the direction from which danger to the pirates might be expected to come. The boy withdrew and joined Scotty. "No sign of anyone on the shelf. I'm going to lower the radio unit, anyway." "Okay. Let's get the rod out."