rts for firing that beastly gas. They are gray, too, while the
fighting ships are striped with red, all except the scarlet one of
Torg's. Those are colonists we are watching, and soldiers to conquer
the Earth where the damned swarm settles."

He stopped to stare at a body of red-clad soldiers, drawn up at
attention. They made a lane, and their arms were raised in the salute
that seemed only for Torg. They stood rigid and motionless; then, from
below the watching men, came one in the full splendor of his scarlet
regalia. The air echoed with the din of his shouted name, but the
bedlam of noise fell on deaf ears for McGuire. He could hear nothing,
and in all the vast kaleidoscope of color he could see only one
object--the white face of a girl who was half led and half carried by
a guard of the red ones, where their Emperor led the way.

* * * * *

It was a strangled cry that was torn from the flyer's throat--the name
of this girl who was going to the doom she had failed to avoid. Her
life, she had said, was hers to keep only if she willed, but her plans
had failed, and she went faltering and stumbling after a scarlet man
beast.

"Althora!" called the flyer, and the figure of the girl was struggling
with her guards in a frenzy that tore their hands free. She turned to
look toward the sound of the voice, and her face was like that of one
dead as her eyes found the man she loved.

"Tommy," she called: "oh, Tommy, my dear! Good-by!" The words were
ended by the clutch of the scarlet Emperor who turned to seize her.

A clatter came from the door behind them, but Lieutenant McGuire gave
no heed. Only Professor Sykes sprang back from the balcony to seize
and struggle with the moving bolts.

The man on the balcony was hardly less than a maniac as he glared
wildly about, but he was not too unreasoning to see the folly of a
wild leap into the throng below. He could never reach her--never. And
then his eyes fell upon the wire that led from above him to the great
pole in the open plaza. There was shouting from behind where the
executioners were wrestling with the bolts.

"Hold them," the flyer shouted, "just for a minute! For God's sake,
Sykes, keep them back! There's a chance!"

He sprang to the balustrade of the balcony, but he saw as he leaped
where Professor Sykes had raised his leg to force the thickness of his
knee between the bolts whose levers outside were bringing them closer
together.