"watch your step going up that hill. It doesn't take much of a bump to
get one of these funny little balls excited."

Dave had been detailed to assist the Doctor. Ensign Blake would lead the
supporting party around the cliff, there to await the Doctor's signals.

Besides the sack in which Dave carried the large spheres, there was
another carried by a seaman. This one gave forth a metallic clinking,
as if it were full of iron eggs. With the Doctor and the other seaman
carrying two rifles each, the four men made their way slowly around
the rocky hillside and were soon advancing silently, single-file, up
the surface of one of those perpetual snow-banks for which the islands
are noted.

The rocks above were much larger than they had seemed from the sub.
Twice, as he climbed over them, Dave's foot slipped and each time his
heart was in his mouth. One stumbling misstep and all might be over for
him. But he had the clear, cool head of a clean boy who had lived right,
and an appreciation of the joy of living, which would take him far and
keep him safe through many an adventure. So, safely, they reached the top
of the cliff.

The Doctor motioned Dave to come back with him to a box-like edge of
rock, which would give them a view of what lay some three hundred feet
below. All was still. The moon, a great yellow ball, floated in the sky
above and in the sea beneath. A lone sea-gull, awakened by the supporting
party, sailed screaming away. Not a move, not a sound was to be detected
below. Yet there, in a rocky cavern, were a number of world-criminals,
and behind some crag were three jackies and their commander. Soon all
this would be changed. Fighting, perhaps death, would end the quiet of