a sudden sweeping blow
that raked Kelly's cheek and ear with stunning force. But the gunman
recovered in a flash, dropped the muzzle of his pistol and pulled the
trigger. Drilled through the thigh, Bart staggered through the open
door and fell the length of the stairs into the darkness of the
cellar. Kelly laughed evilly as he slammed the door and turned the
key.

"Hold it, you!" he snarled as he swung on Van who had dropped his
hands and crouched for a spring. "If I drill you, it won't be through
the leg. I'll take those diamonds now."

* * * * *

He pocketed one of his pistols, and, keeping the other pressed to the
pit of Van's stomach, went through his pockets. Then he added those on
the tray by the crystal bowl to the collection, and transferred the
entire lot to his own pocket.

"Now, you clever engineer," he grinned, "we'll just operate this trick
machine of yours for a while and collect some more. Hop to it!" He
watched narrowly as Van stretched his fingers to the controls. "No
monkey business, either," he grated; "you'll not change a single
adjustment. I've been listening to you and I know the clock of the
telescope is keeping the ray trained on the same spot. You just
operate the ray and nothing else. Get me?"

Van did not think it expedient to tell him of the drift caused by
inaccuracies in the clock and perturbations of the moon's motion. He
was playing for time, trying to plan a course of action.

"There may not be any more diamonds," he offered as he tripped the
release of the ray.

"Oh, there'll be more. Don't try to kid me."

An irregular block of quartz materialized in the bowl and Kelly tossed
it to the floor in savage disgust. Then a small diamond, very small;
but he pocketed it nevertheless. The next object was a strange one--a
dried seed pod about six inches in length and of brilliant red color.
The ray had shifted to a new position on the lunar surface. Another
and another of the strange legumes followed, one of them bursting open
and scattering its contents, bright red like the enclosing pod to
rattle over the floor like tiny glass beads. Kelly snorted his
disgust.

"Still some sort of vegetation out there," Van muttered. The eternal
scientist in the man could not be downed by a mere hold-up.

"Can the chatter!" Kelly snarled as the crystal bowl gave up another
of the useless pods and still another. He gathered up the evidence of
lunar vegetation, a hal