ous, roaring reply.

"_Captain Bors!_" cried a voice from the ground exultantly. "_Land and
welcome! We didn't hope you'd come here, but you're a thousand times
welcome! We've smashed the garrison here, Captain! We rose days ago and
we hold the planet! We'll join you! Come to ground, sir! We can supply
you!_"

Bors went tense all over. He'd been called by name! If he was known by
name on _this_ world--twenty light-years from Mekin and thirty-five from
Kandar--then everything was lost.

"Can you send up a space-boat?" he asked in a voice he did not
recognize. "I'd like to have your news."

It must be a trap. It was possible that there'd been revolt on Deccan;
he'd found proof of rebellion elsewhere. There'd been claims of revolt
on Cassis, but he hadn't been suspicious then. He'd sent down a missile
to help the self-proclaimed rebels there. Now he wondered desperately if
he'd been tricked there as, it was all too likely, he would be here.
There'd been reported fighting on Avino. There was cheering for his men
on Dover, and he might have landed there. But there were too many
coincidences, far too many.

He waited, fifty thousand miles high, with the ship at combat-alert. He
felt cold all over. Somehow, news had preceded him. It was garbled
truth, but there was enough to make his spine feel like ice.

He spoke over the all-speaker hook-up, in a voice he could not keep
steady by any effort of will.

"All hands attention," he said heavily. "I just called ground. We have
had a reply calling me by name. You will see the implication. It looks
like somehow the Mekinese have managed to send word ahead of us. They've
found out that no one can stand against us. They know we have new and
deadly weapons. Probably there have been orders given to lure us to
ground by the pretense of a successful revolt. It would be hoped that we
can be fooled to the point where we will land and our ship can be
captured _undestroyed_.--That's the way it looks."

He swallowed, with difficulty.

"If that's so," he said after an instant, "you can guess what's been
done about Kandar. The grand fleet was assembled on Mekin. It could have
gone to Kandar...."

He swallowed again. Then he said savagely, "Well make sure first. If the
worst has happened we'll take our fleet and head for Mekin and pour down
every ounce of atomic explosive we've got. We may not be able to turn
its air to poison, but if there are survivors, they won't celebrate what
the