less, trembling terror.

"Get ready, Bradley!" Costigan directed tersely. "He's left Clio's
ether-wall off, so that any abnormal signals would be relayed to him
from his desk--he knows that there's no chance of anyone disturbing him
in _that_ room. But I'm holding my beam on that switch--it's as good a
conductor as metal--so that the wall is on, full strength. No matter
what we do now, he can't get a warning. I'll have to hold the beam
exactly on the switch, though, so you'll have to do the dirty work. Tear
out that red wire and kill those two guards. You know how to kill a
robot, don't you?"

"Yes--break his eye-lenses and his eardrums and he'll stop whatever he's
doing and send out distress calls.... Got 'em both. Now what?"

"Open my door--the shield switch is to the right."

Costigan's door flew open and the Triplanetary captain leaped into the
room.

"Now for our armor!" he cried.

"Not yet!" snapped Costigan. He was standing rigid, goggled eyes staring
immovably at a spot upon the ceiling. "I can't move a millimeter until
you've closed Clio's ether-wall switch. If I take this ray off it for a
second we're sunk. Five floors up, straight ahead down a
corridor--fourth door on right. When you're at the switch you'll feel my
ray on your watch. Snap it up!"

"Right!" and the captain leaped away at a pace to be equaled by few men
of half his years.

Soon he was back, and after Costigan had tested the ether-wall of the
"bridal suite" to make sure that no warning signal from his desk or his
servants could reach Roger within it, the two officers hurried away
toward the room in which their discarded space-armor had been stored.

"Too bad they don't wear uniforms," panted Bradley, short of breath from
the many flights of stairs. "Might have helped some as disguise."

"I doubt it--with so many robots around, they've probably got signals
that we couldn't understand, anyway. If we meet anybody it'll mean a
battle. Hold it!" Peering through walls with his spy-ray, Costigan had
seen two men approaching, blocking an intersecting corridor into which
they must turn. "Two of 'em, a man and a robot--the robot's on your
side. We'll wait here, right at the corner--when they round it, take
'em!" And Costigan put away his goggles in readiness for strife.

All unsuspecting, the two pirates came into view, and as they appeared
the two officers struck. Costigan, on the inside, drove a short, hard
right low into the human pirate's