At the deck window the giant projector spat its deadly electronic
stream. The men down there leaped away from it in surprise. I heard
Potan's voice, his shout of protest and anger.
But down in the Earth glow at the crater base, Miko's lights had not
vanished! I had missed! An error in the range? Abruptly I knew it was
not that. Miko's lights were still there. His signals still coming.
And I noticed now a faint distortion about them, the glow of his
little group of hand lights faintly distorted and vaguely shot with a
greenish cast. Benson curve lights!
My thoughts whirled in the few seconds while I stood there at the
tower window. Miko had feared he might be summarily fired on. He had
gone back to his camp, equipped all his lights with the Benson curve.
He was somewhere at the crater base now. But not where I thought I saw
him! The Benson curve light changed the path of the light rays
traveling from him to me, I could not even approximate his true
position!