to quiver spasmodically, but Standish held to his course. It had occurred to him that this world might possibly be inhabited and that he might obtain aid for his return to Earth, or at least the proper directions.

But as he drew closer, the land resolved itself into thick jungle and smooth eroded mountain tops, barren of any building or structure. The planet, on this hemisphere at least, was devoid of life.

A bell clanged above the massmeter, warning him the ship was in the danger zone. He seized the wheel and turned it hard over. At the same time he moved the power switch to the last notch.

The liner swung sluggishly. And then the thing Standish had feared happened! The single motor buckled under the strain and ceased. Without resistance, the ship swept full into the gravitational field of the planet and plunged downward.

Like a man in a dream Standish saw jungle rush up to meet him. An instant later there was a terrific crash, and he felt himself hurled into oblivion.

III

An eternity seemed to have passed before he opened his eyes. He was conscious immediately of his left arm which was pinioned under a heavy rock. He wrenched it free and staggered erect, looking about dazedly.

His eyes opened in bewilderment. He lay on a shelf, a small escarpment projecting from the side of a cliff. Far below him, smashed and broken in two, amid jagged boulders, lay the prison ship. And sweeping on and on to the horizon was a dense matted jungle.

The trees resembled giant cat-tails. Without branches, the trunks towered up a full three hundred feet to form a huge green protruberance at the top. The rock of the cliff was neither igneous nor sedimentary. Instead it was smooth and almost translucent, like glass.

In the sky above, two suns blazed, one at the zenith, one a fiery ball dipping over the horizon. The air was warm and humid, and Standish knew the oxygen content must be almost the same as on Earth.

Nature-formed rock slabs led in stair formation down the cliff. While he stood there, slowly regaining his strength, the Earthman tried to trace the path of the crashing liner. He saw where it had struck, ripping open the entire side and casting him out. Then it had rolled end over end down into the ravine.

At length, Standish began his descent. The moment he swung his body over the edge to hang by his 

 Prev. P 7/37 next