Somehow they pulled and tugged the body onto the back of the sleepy burro. Then Davey clambered on, balancing precariously on the animal's hips. Biddy took the reins and pulled Buck into movement and the strange cavalcade moved off across the desert.
Half an hour later, Biddy cried, "There's the cave and some people are there. And they've got lights."
Davey was craning his neck. "Look—look at that funny looking thing. It's—it's a ship of some kind."
As they crawled slowly up the hill toward the rocks, they saw great activity. There were half a dozen young men moving from the strange ship into the cave and back again. As Buck came into the circle of light, two of the men came forward.
They gave the body hanging limply over Buck's back their entire attention. They spoke to each other in some strange language and then the rest of the group were crowding about.
"We found him hanging from a tree," Biddy said a little fearfully, but they paid no attention to her.
They lifted the body from the burro and held it partially erect. After a short conference one of the men hurried to the ship and returned with a small tube that somewhat resembled a fire extinguisher. He pointed it at Joe's chest and pressed a button and a thin blue flame crackled as it seemed to penetrate the flesh.
In a matter of seconds, Joe coughed, opened his eyes, and was standing without help. One of the men, frowning slightly, snapped a question in the strange language. He spoke at the same moment Biddy ran forward and cried, "Oh, Joe! You're all right. You aren't dead! We found you hanging there but I knew you were still alive. I just knew it!"
Joe smiled at her and laid a hand on her head. He ignored the other men, giving Biddy his attention as he said, "I'm a lot harder to kill than you would imagine."