A hulking shadow stood over him. He felt it more than saw it. He saw two hands reach down. They dragged him across the field. He could see everything quite clearly but his eyes seemed set in a vise-like single focus. He noticed the twin tracks his heels made in the frost on the field....

Then it was warm, a soft clinging warmth that seemed to flow throughout his tired body—like life flowing into him again. He was lying on something soft and comfortable.

He opened his eyes, saw a woman's face before him.

Ricker stared at the face a long time. It was a perfect oval, wreathed in jet black hair, molded with deft yet full lips and a firm nose. The eyes were green. It was Molly Borden. Her green eyes were glistening, wet with tears....

"Why did you save me, Molly Borden?" he asked finally.

"I am not Molly Borden," she said. "I am Dorothy Adison."

The words meant nothing to Ricker for a moment. He just lay there staring up at her. Then with a shock like cold water, the meaning of her words crashed upon him.

"Dorothy Adison—!"

"Don't talk," she said softly. "Lie still and drink this." She put a glass of warm liquid to his lips. He gulped thirstily and the stuff darted through his veins like fire. Quick strength suffused his body.

He lay there, panting a moment, then slowly struggled up on an elbow. His right arm was tightly bandaged with a piece of silver cloth. He saw it was a strip from the woman's dress, which was in tatters above her rounded knees. She sat on the end of the sofa. She was crying, softly like a child.

"Dorothy Adison," breathed Ricker. "You lie! She was blonde—an Earthian. You're Venusian and—It's a lie!"

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I dyed my hair," she said.

"But your eyes—they're Venusian—slanting—!"

"Makeup," she said.

Ricker sank back upon the sofa. "But why?" he said. "Why!" None of this made sense. Molly Borden confessed killing Benjamin Adison and now she said she wasn't Molly Borden but Adison's daughter....

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