Blake muttered: "If it was stolen, I'll bet I know who got it. That damned pirate, Perrin! You know we had information he was out this way."
Devries said: "No. I think there's something else behind all this, something more than the Shining Stone. And I hate to think what."
He was still remembering a mad Martian's story.
Bells clanged. The vibration of the rockets ceased. Through the ports came a weird, green glow as they passed close to the atmosphere of Neptune. The spacer swung around that planet, using its gravity as a pivot, then the Earthmen saw the single tiny satellite which V'Naric had called Dhovril.
An hour later they were there, slanting down over a terrain of desert and serrated cliffs. The great ball of Neptune hung behind, filling half the sky, its glow casting just enough light over the satellite to tinge everything with a greenish grotesquerie.
"Lord, that gives me the creeps!" Blake muttered, peering out.
"This little planet must be pretty heavy, though," Janus estimated. "Gravity seems about right."
They passed beyond the cliffs and over a large desert. Then, far ahead, they saw the towering stone edifices of a city, gleaming a ghastly skull-white in the green tinged atmosphere. Devries turned his face away. He recognized the city from the Martian's description.
Before they quite, reached there, however, Blake cried: "Look! Down there!"