"Ketrik!" Janus boomed, hoisting his big frame from the chair. "By all that's holy, he did reach here! She must have seen Ketrik's ship!" Then he sobered. "But—if it was streaking for the dark side, it was surely out of control. Ketrik must be dead by now. To think I'd live to see the day when that man blanked out."
Mari had drawn a strange looking pistol from a belt at her waist. She gestured with it now and said:
"Be seated, please. We will talk yet a while. This Ketrik—he is another one from Earth?"
"Yes, he came before us. Came alone. We only landed here today, a few hours ago! Believe me, we want no part of those Perlacs. We had a little trouble with them."
She seemed relieved, and satisfied at last. "Forgive my suspicion of you. But where the safety of my people is concerned, I cannot be too careful. We have had trouble with the Perlacs, always. The greatest trouble is yet to come and it is brewing fast." She appeared to be marshalling her thoughts, then she went on:
"We are the seventh generation of a party of Earth people who arrived here hundreds of years ago. My direct ancestor, Wilm Frell, was leader of that expedition. Our city is named in his honor!"
"I've got it!" Mark exclaimed. "She means William Farrell! The Farrell expedition was one of the earliest and most ambitious interstellar attempts. Men had already reached the moon and were trying for Mars. Farrell set out with a hundred men and women aboard—"
"A hundred and forty," Mari corrected. "We have his log here. They missed Mars, their compasses were wrecked in the asteroids and they continued outward for months, finally crashing here. We still do not know what planet this is!"
"You're beyond Pluto!" Brownell told her. "But how could they have survived a crash on this heavy world?"
"It is one of the miracles. The records tell of it. They landed near the light! The light at that time encompassed a very small area, only a few miles. Gravity there was normal, but beyond, it was very heavy. They investigated the center of light and found the Stone."