the air
and dropped down until she rested upon the tops of opposite walls; walls
still glowing, semi-molten. The girl piled a stool upon the table and
stood upon it, reached upward, and seized the mailed hands extended
downward toward her. Costigan heaved her up into the vessel with a
powerful jerk, slammed the door shut, leaped to the controls, and the
speedster darted away.

"Your armor's in that bundle there. Better put it on, and check your
Lewistons and pistols--no telling what kind of jams we'll get into," he
snapped, without turning. "Bradley, start talking ... all right, I've
got your line. Better get your wet rags ready and get organized
generally--every second will count by the time we get there. We're
coming so fast that our outer plating's white hot, but it may not be
fast enough, at that."

"It isn't fast enough, quite," Bradley announced, calmly. "They're
coming out after me now."

"Don't fight them and probably they won't paralyze you. Keep on talking,
so that I can find out where they take you."

"No good, Costigan." The voice of the old space-flea did not reveal a
sign of emotion as he made his dread announcement. "They have it all
figured out. They're not taking any chances at all--they're going to
paral...." His voice broke off in the middle of the word.

With a bitter imprecation Costigan flashed on the powerful ultra-beam
projector of the speedster and focused the plate upon Bradley's prison;
careless now of detection, since the Nevians were already warned. Upon
that plate he watched the Nevians carry the helpless body of the captain
into a small boat, and continued to watch as they bore it into one of
the largest buildings of the city. Up a series of ramps they took the
still form, placing it finally upon a soft couch in an enormous and
heavily guarded central hall. Costigan turned to his companion, Clio,
and even through the helmets she could see plainly the white agony of
his expression. He moistened his lips and tried twice to speak--tried
and failed: but he made no move either to cut off their power or to
change their direction.

"Of course," she approved, steadily. "We are going through. I know that
you _want_ to run with me, but if you actually did it, I would never
want to see you or hear of you again, and you would hate me forever."

"Hardly that." The anguish did not leave his eyes and his voice was
hoarse and strained, but his hands did not vary the course of the
speedster by so