* *

I whispered, "I'll try an Earth-signal."

She nodded. Pale, tense, but calm. "Yes, Gregg. And I was thinking--"

"It won't take a minute. Have your helmet ready."

"I was thinking--"

She hurried across the room. I swung on the Botz signaling apparatus.
It was connected. Within a moment I had it humming. The fluorescent
tubes lighted with their lurid glare; they painted purple the body of
the giant duty-man who lay sprawled at my feet. I drew on all the
ship's power. The tube-lights in the room quivered and went dim.

I would have to hurry. Potan could shut this off from the main hull
control room. I could see, through the room's upper trap, the primary
sending mirror mounted in the peak of the dome. It was quivering,
radiant with its light-energy. I sent the flash.

The flattened, past-full Earth was up there. I knew that the western
hemisphere faced the Moon at this hour. I flashed in English, with the
open Universal Earth-code:

"_Help! Grantline._"

And again: "_Send help! Archimedes region near Apennines. Attacked by
brigands. Send help at once! Grantline!_"

If only it would be received! I flung off the current. Anita stood
watching me intently. "Gregg, look!"

She had taken some of the glass globe-bombs which lay by the foot of
the ascending ladder. She held some of them now.

"Gregg. I threw some."

* * * * *

At the window we gazed down. The globes she flung had shattered on the
deck. They were occulting darkness bombs.[5]

[Footnote 5: Filled with an odorless, harmless gas, these bombs were
used in warfare, taking the place of the old-fashioned smoke screens.
The diffusing gas was of such a nature that, when released, it
absorbed within itself all the color inherent to the light-rays
striking it, thus creating a temporary darkness.]

Through the blackness of the deck, the shouts of the brigands came up.
They were stumbling about. But the ramming of our trap went on, and I
saw that it was beginning to yield. One corner of it was bent up.

"We've got to go, Anita!"

"Yes."

From out of the darkness which hung like a shroud over the deck an
occasional flash came up, unaimed--wide of our windows. But the
darkness was dissipating. I could see now the dim glow of the deck
lights, blurred as through a heavy fog.

I dropped another of the bombs.

"Put on your helmet."

"Yes--yes, I will. You put on yours."

We had them adjusted in a moment. Our E