That wasn't the whole truth. He didn't know, but he certainly could make a shrewd guess. All along, his chief reason for fearing delay on this expedition had been that Kalinoff might die before he could get to him. Now there was another reason for fearing delay. Suppose there were another expedition on the way to rescue Kalinoff. And suppose McCracken was secretly in the pay of the people behind that expedition, and doing everything possible to sabotage this one. Lamoureux nodded to himself. That was probably it. The first thing, then, was to get the radio set from McCracken. * * * * * Big Muscles, as the other men had nicknamed McCracken, was a few hundred feet away, staring off into the distance. What else he could see besides snow, Lamoureux couldn't guess. He yelled, "Hey, McCracken!" "Coming, Captain." McCracken took a few tentative steps, broke into a short run, and then made a leap that carried him seventy-five feet through the air, past where Lamoureux was standing. He ended up at attention, his hand raised in a military salute. Lamoureux frowned. Knowing what he did about McCracken, this attempt to seem carefree, childish, and perhaps a little stupid impressed him unfavorably. He said, "McCracken, I'm taking you out of Carvalho's group and putting you into my own. I may need some strong-arm work and you're just the man for it." "I sure am, Captain." "Seeing as I already have a radio, you may as well turn yours over to Carvalho." McCracken seemed a trifle less eager. "It's rather heavy, Captain. If you'd like, I'd carry it for you just the same." "I prefer to have my own where I can get at it whenever the need arises. Turn yours over to Carvalho, McCracken." "Yes, sir. Meanwhile, I want to report, sir, that from where I was standing when you called to me, I think I could see those mountains." Lamoureux had his doubts, but he kept them to himself. "Good," he said briefly. "We'll get going." He called the men together again and gave them their marching orders. Whether the Mercurian understood what he said, Lamoureux didn't know. At any rate, it went along willingly. They reached the place where McCracken had been standing, and Lamoureux stared where Big Muscles pointed. There were two mountains rising off in the distance, barely visible through the snow, and there was certainly a saddleback ridge between them. The only trouble was that one of the mountains was almost twice the height of the other. Kalinoff had reported them as approximately the same height. "That doesn't fit Kalinoff's description." McCracken said, "Maybe he looked at them from a different angle, sir. Then they might have seemed the same height." "If he looked at them from a different angle, the ridge would no longer seem saddlebacked." "That's true, sir. But then you know, sir, Kalinoff is a screwball--"