Yes, it was berryllium oxide gleaming at his feet, crystalline and powdery just as men had found it for the first time a century before in the desert wastes of Arizona. The entire floor of the grotto was covered with it as far as his widening eyes could see. He bent in a frenzy of joy and scooped up whole handfuls. He half-babbled over it like a delirious King Midas. He let it trickle fondly through his fingers in a little glittering flood. Saved! Now they could repair the ship and return! Return to Earth and tell of this!
Not until several minutes later did Hugh begin to wonder how he had come here. With a rush of apprehension, he remembered a cold and tenacious something that had seized a part of his mind. But now it was gone and he felt strangely limp and tired.
He leaped to his feet. Staring around, he wondered if he could retrace his steps back to the space-ship. And in that precise moment he felt his mind seized again with a sort of frantic suddenness. There was no mistaking that very clear warning of, "Danger! Danger!"
But he could not have acted in time. Even as he spun around he was unaware of the shadow that lengthened behind him, until it loomed very near and a part of it lashed out. Not until the last split second, did Hugh glimpse wild and red-streaked eyes in vivid contrast to the grim and purposeful face behind a helmet plate. Then the part of the shadow that was Jim Brannigan's arm, holding something massive like a rock, completed the swift arc and struck.
A sun exploded within Hugh's head. Livid flames engulfed him, consumed him, he tried to cry out but couldn't; then the sun fragments cruelly withdrew, leaving him helpless in a cold blackness through which he fell like a plummet to ultimate extinction.
Jim Brannigan stood there tensely for a moment, looking at the man he had struck down. But only for a moment. His lips quirked into a tight smile, and his exulting keen eyes took in the cave's glittering expanse.