re
stopped.

The Rogan had not touched the switch--yet whatever sort of current it
was that charged the plate was abruptly clicked off, as though someone
at a distance had cut a wire or thrown a master-switch.

* * * * *

Simultaneously with its ceasing, an invisible, crushing sea seemed to
envelope everything. Dex felt his body sag against his metal bonds as
if it had been changed to lead.

Before him the Rogans, who had been crowding closer to watch
gloatingly each grimace he made, shot doorward as though their
pipe-stem legs had been swept from under them. The leader fell on the
stump of his seared arm and, a deafening squeal of rage and pain came
from his little mouth. His tube fell from his grasp and rolled over
the floor half a dozen yards away from him.

Amazed, observing the stricken creatures only dimly through a haze of
pain, Dex saw them struggle vainly to get up again, and heard them
chattering excitedly to themselves. For the moment, in the face of
this queer phenomenon, the prisoner seemed to be forgotten. And Dex
was quick to seize the momentary advantage.

"Greca!" he called. "The tube! There--on the floor!"

The girl raised her head quickly, and followed his imploring gaze.
Laboriously she started for the tube. At the same instant the Rogan
leader began to feel around him for his lost weapon. Not finding it,
he raised his head and glanced about for it. He saw the girl making
her way toward it and, with a squeak of terror, began to crawl toward
it himself.

* * * * *

He was not quick enough. The girl, though not nearly as active under
the increased pull of gravity as a person of Earth might be, was yet
more agile than the Rogans. And she was the faster mover in this
tortuous, snail-like race. While the Rogan leader was still several
feet away, she retrieved the shock-tube.

"Kill him!" begged Dex. "And all the rest of the filthy creatures!"

With feminine horror of the thing that faced her, Greca hesitated an
instant--a hesitation almost long enough to be fatal. Then, just as
the Rogan leader was reaching savagely out for her, she leveled the
tube at him and turned it to its full power.

One last thin squeal came from the Rogan's mouth, a squeal that
cracked abruptly at its height. What had been its gangling body
drifted up in inky smoke.

"The others!" called Dex. "Quick! Before they get their weapons--"

Greca swept the d