eath-tube in a short arc in front of her, over the
bodies of the remaining Rogans, as if spraying plants with a hose. One
after another, toppling in swift succession like grotesque falling
dominoes, the creatures sagged to the floor and melted away. That one
small part of Jupiter's red spot, at least, was cleared of Rogan
population.

* * * * *

Long shudders racked Greca's body, and her lips were a bloodless line
in her pallid face. But she did not go into womanly hysterics or swoon
at the slaughter it had been her lot to inflict. Moving as quickly as
she could, she went to the metal slab and began, with shaking fingers,
to undo the fastenings that held Dex prisoner.

"Good girl," said Dex, patting her satiny bare shoulder as he stood
free again. "You're a sport and a gentleman. You don't understand the
terms? They're Earth words, Greca, that carry the highest praise a man
can give a woman. But let's get out of here before another gang comes
and takes us again. Where can we hide?"

"I don't know any hiding places," confessed Greca despairingly. "The
Rogans swarm everywhere. We will be seen the moment we try to leave
here."

"Well, we'll hunt for a hole, anyway," said Dex. He essayed to walk.
What with the tendency of his muscles to jerk and collapse with the
aftermath of the torture he had endured, and the sudden and
inexplicable increase in gravity that bore him down, he made heavy
going of it. "First we'll go up and get Brand."

"Yes, yes," said Greca, a soft glow in her clear blue eyes. "Let us go
quickly."

She started toward the door, panting with the effort of moving. But
Dex halted an instant, to stoop and pick up another of the tubes.

"We might as well have one of these apiece," he said. "You've proved
you have the grit to use one; and maybe the dirty rats will think
twice about rushing us if we each have a load of death in our hands."

* * * * *

They made their way out of the torture laboratory, and up the incline
to the street level. And it was just as they reached this that the
burden of gravity under which they staggered was lifted from their
shoulders as quickly as it had descended on them.

Dex raised his arms just in time to fend his body from a collision
with the wall in front of him. "Now what!" he exclaimed.

Greca lifted her hand for silence, inclined her head, and listened
intently. As she did so, Dex heard the same noise