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The Wanderer put on its yin-yang mask for a ninth time For two full days it had tors and noith stor dropped his spade, snatched up his e life raft as it rushed by on a foarabbed at hient captains of the "Prince Charles," terrified by the hurricane winds that struck through the inky night fro the under the winds like black grenadiers, steered the great atom-liner for safety into one of the an to break over the "Albatross" again despite its sea anchor, but Barbara Katz wouldn&039;t go below A chill wind began to blow in gusts across Mr Hasseltine&039;s penthouse patio, rippling thin pools of water there, and Sally Harris and Jake Lesher retreated once again to the soaked living rooht of the "Endurance" Wolf Loner sao corpses float by a flotsahts peering, cautiously nosed their way along the , at intervals, to Vandenberg Tice already ers had had to unkink and cli enough to warrant expending the last charge in the ht show up in the watchful headlight beams of the Corvette Chains clinked rhythmically on the truck&039;s rear wheels

The east-breeze co over the mountains at their back was mostly tepid - fortunately for people all bone-weary and all exposed, except for the Hixons and Pop in the cab of the truck

Save for that of the motors and wheels, the only sound was a faint, rhyth roar from ahead

The Wanderer had risen two hours after sunset and now rode above the saray sky, its iny and golden light creating the illusion that it was the source of the friendly breeze It was no longer quite spherical, however, but slightly gibbous, like the moon two days after full A narrow black crescent cut off the ri the movements of the moon it had destroyed, it moved east around the earth, or rather, around a point between the two planets Loosely girdling its equator like a fillittered and gleaently to a wide saddle, the sides of which rose in smooth earthen slopes to flat, low rock crests The Corvette reached the top of the saddle, pulled to the right, and stopped with four rapid horn-beeps, dousing its lights The truck pulled up beside it to the left, and did the same

Most of the party had at one ti down on a fog or a low cloud layer fro the hilltops lifting up through it, andat how flat and far it stretched - a veritable ocean of clouds Now the same persons had for a second or two or three the illusion that they itnessing the saht

This illusory, nocturnal cloud-ocean began scarcely fifty yards beyond and no more than a dozen yards below the to either side the contours of the hills There was only one island, low and flat, but so big it stretched out of sight past the dark hillsides to the north Red and white lights shone sparsely froht revealed two clusters of low, pale-walled, pale-roofed buildings And already in the first , there was a faint drone and a tiny red and green pair of lights slanting down from the south, as a small airplane landed on the island A strait a quarter of a mile wide separated the island from the mainland

Then the illusion faded and one by one the saucer students realized that it was not cloud-ocean that stretched to the horizon but salt ocean, notrhyth road fifty yards ahead; that the island was Vandenberg Two; and that the strait between covered a inland of the Space Force base, home of the Moon Project - of Morton Opperly and Major Buford Huh those last tere elsewhere now

At the wheel of the Corvette, Hunter felt on his left shoulder fingers that lay lightly at first, but then gripped strongly He put his right hand on top of the hand there and turned his head and looked at Margo&039;s face - the yellow hair drawn flat, the long lips, the hungry cheeks, the dark eyes - and she looked back, expressionless, at hi his hand from hers he called up to the truck: "We&039;ll caoes doe&039;ll enter Vandenberg"

Don Merria symphonically with a red-black storm, as if the colors had been chosen tosilently beside hirely, then rapidly, then the elevator stopped, and its floor was oncesee ray pinnacle four tireat plastic structures crouched off into the distance like an army of abstract sculptures The pit yaith its unsupported silver railings

Then Don saw that only one saucer - colored with a violet-yellow yin-yang - hovered beside the Baba Yaga That stained leamed as if newly burnished, and instead of the ladder there hung below the hatch a stubby man-wide a, the Russian lea metal tube projected outside its hatch, which was located near the nose

The felinoid lightly touched Don&039;s shoulder and said in his caressingly slurred English: "We are taking you to an Earth friend Your ship is fueled and serviced, and it goes with us, but you will ride in mine at first There will be a transfer in space Have no fear"

Paul Hagbolt ith a start Tigerishka was snarling at hiot a visitor!"

The start carried hiainst which he&039;d been resting, so for the ravity while he tried to get the sleep out of his eyes and ain, and the ere solid pink oncewith the flowers the effect of a co some flappy objects out of a door in the Waste Panel She proceeded to throw theot hooked on her claws and she ripped it loose in a fury and hurled it after the others

Paul, or rather his body, intercepted the objects without difficulty, since they ell ai freshly of cotton and other fabrics, though there were no creases in the pants He fu in a voice still squeaky with sleep: "But, Tigerishka - "

"I&039;ll help you, you stupid ape!"

She coasted to hi the shirt, started to raerishka?" he deht - "

"Don&039;t ever ht to me, monkey!" she snarled The shirt ripped, and she tried to shove his foot into the next garrabbed, which happened to be his coat

"But you&039;re acting as if you were angry and asha her atterabbed hilared her violet-irised eyes into his

"Ashamed!" she repeated vibrantly Then, very coldly: "Paul, have you ever masturbated a lower ani his hten, especially around the neck