had even insisted on stripping the flitter of much of its Terran
equipment before they left the city, pointing out that the cleared
storage space would be filled with salvage when they made the return
voyage.

The globe had been trailing along the coastline, and now it angled out
to glide over a long finger of cape, rocky and waterworn, which
pointed at almost a right angle into the sea. This dwindled into a
reef of rock, like the nail on a finger. The sea ahead was no unbroken
expanse. Instead there was a series of islands, some merely tops of
reefs over which the waves broke, others more substantial, rising well
above the threatening water, and one or two showing the green of
vegetation.

The chain of islets extended so far out that when the flitter passed
over the last one the main continent was out of sight. Now only water
stretched beneath them. The globe skidded on as if its pilot had given
it an extra burst of power, and Raf accelerated in turn, having no
desire to lose his guide. But they were not to make the ocean-wide
trip in one jump.

At midday he saw again a break in the smooth carpet of waves, another
island, or perhaps the southern tip of a northern continent for the
land swept in that direction as far as he could see. The globe
spiraled down to make a neat landing on a flat plateau, and Raf
prepared to join it. When the undercarriage of the flitter jarred
lightly on the rock, he saw signs that this was a man-or
alien-fashioned place which must have had much use in the dim past
when his new companions ruled all their native world.