ched the lever, only to fall
feebly back again in a snarl of tangled limbs.

Meanwhile, Brand had flashed a quick look back over his shoulder to
see, in the wall behind him, a metal door he hadn't noticed before. He
found time for a flashing instant to wonder why there were no Rogans
entering from that doorway, too; but it was a vain wonder, and it
faded from his mind as the ever advancing, groping monsters before him
kept crowding him back.

Instinctively he changed his course a trifle, to edge toward the
metal door. Perhaps, behind it, there was sanctuary for a few moments.
Perhaps he could force it open, spring out, and bar it again in the
faces of the pursuing mob. It sounded improbable, but at least it
offered him a slim chance where before no chance had seemed possible.

He reached the door at last, fumbled behind him and felt, high over
his head, a massive sliding bolt.

* * * * *

In the spot Brand had left, the struggle to throw the gravity-lever
back into closed contact position went on. The Rogan who was
fruitlessly trying to reach up to it paused and said something to one
near him. That one halted, and began to crawl toward him.

The two of them tried to reach it, one bracing the other and helping
him pry his body up from the implacable pull of Jupiter's uninsulated
mass. The top Rogan reached a little higher. The flesh sucker-disk
that served as a hand almost grasped the lever, but failed by only a
few inches.

A third Rogan crawled up. And now, with two arching their backs to
help the other, the thing was done. The hose-like, groping arm went up
and pushed the lever back into place.

The blue streamer began to hum and crackle from coil to coil again.
The invisible weight that pressed down was released as once more the
giant planet's gravity was nullified. The Rogans got eagerly to their
feet and began to race toward Brand in their normal long bounds.

Brand, just cautiously rising, when the power went back on, found
himself leaping five feet into the air with the excess of his muscular
effort. And in that leap he saw the Rogans in the rear straighten up
and point their tubes. However, also in that leap, his fumbling hand
shot back the bolt that securely shut the metal door.

With a shout of defiance he jumped out of the door and slammed it shut
after him, feeling it grow searing hot an instant later under the
impact of the rays from the tubes that had been trained