triumph. He had it! _Now_ let the devils put him back
on the torture bed if they could! _Now_ let them try to make him
betray his planet!

* * * * *

There was an alarmed squeak from the Rogan leader, and in an instant
the huge laboratory was in an uproar. The Rogan guards whipped their
hose-like arms toward the Earthman. Dex, with a sweep of his hands,
knocked the pipe-stem legs of two of the guards from under them,
leaped over their bodies, and stood at bay in a corner--guarding the
bench on which the guards had laid their tubes when they filed into
the laboratory.

The air resounded with the shrill calls of the excited Rogans. Then
they began to close in on him, all the while eyeing the tube in his
hand with terror written large on their hideous faces.

Dex's eyes blazed with the light of vengeful exultation. For the death
of Journeyman and the rest, for the coming inevitable death of himself
and Brand, he was going to pay--at least in part--with the captured
tube of death in his hand! It was a lovely thought, and for a few
seconds he delayed acting in order to savor it.

Then, with a smile of pure happiness, he leveled the tube at the
nearest Rogan in order to shrivel him to nothingness as he had seen
the slave shrivelled in the street.

The Rogan did not fall! Full in the face of the death tube he teetered
forward, his arms reaching savagely toward the Earthman.

Dex stared incredulously. Cold fear crept into his heart. He pointed
the tube more accurately, and squeezed harder on the coil handle.
Still nothing happened. The Rogans warily drew closer.

* * * * *

Perspiration began to trickle down Dex's cheeks. In God's name, why
didn't the tube work? He had thought all he had to do was point it and
squeeze down on the handle. But evidently there was more to the trick
than that!

He groaned. He had staged all this elaborate play for a weapon as
useless to his untrained mind as one of Earth's explosive guns, with
the safety-lock clamped on, would have been to an abysmal Venusian
savage!

By now the nearest Rogan was within reaching distance of him. One of
its two pairs of slimy arms uncoiled toward him. The other pair
strained to reach around him and get to the weapons on the bench by
his side.

With a cry, Dex dashed the useless shock-tube down on the reaching
arms. As long as he didn't know how to work it anyway, he might as
well use it a