for
Horace Yingling and Joe West; this time tomorrow, they'll be a pair of
dead traitors, he thought. "Well, we'll have to make do with what we
have. Where's Russ Latterman, by the way?"

Prestonby gave a sidewise glance toward Claire and shook his head, his
lips pressed tightly together. _She doesn't know, yet_, Cardon
interpreted.

"Down in the basement, with Coccozello," Prestonby said, aloud. "We're
in telephone communication with Coccozello, and have a freight
elevator running between here and the basement. Coccozello says
Latterman is using a rifle against the raiders, killing every one he
can get a shot at."

Cardon nodded. Probably vindictive about being involved in action
injurious to Pelton's commercial interests; just another odd quirk of
Literate ethics.

"We'd better get him up here," he said. "You and I have got to leave,
at once; we have to get Pelton and Claire to safety. He can help Major
Slater till we can get back with re-enforcements. I am going to kill a
man named Horace Yingling, and then I'm going to round up the storm
troops he diverted on a wild-goose chase to North Jersey." He nodded
to the medic and the four plain-clothes guards. "Get Pelton on the
stretcher. Better use the canvas flaps and the straps. He's under
hypnotaine, but it's likely to be a rough trip. Claire, get anything
you want to take with you. Ralph will take you where you'll be safe
for a while."

"But the store--" Claire began.

"Your father has riot-insurance, doesn't he? I know he does; they
doubled the premium on him when he came out for Senate. Let the
insurance company worry about the store."

The medic and the guards moved into Chester Pelton's private rest room
with the stretcher. Claire went to the desk and began picking up odds
and ends, including the pistol Cardon had given her, and putting them
in her handbag.

"We've got to keep her away from her father, for a few days, Ralph,"
he told Prestonby softly. "It's all over town that she can read and
write. We've got to give him a chance to cool off before he sees her
again. Take her to Lancedale. I have everything fixed up; she'll be
admitted to the Fraternities this afternoon, and given Literate
protection."

Prestonby grabbed his hand impulsively. "Frank! I'll never be able to
repay you for this, not if I live to be a thousand--" he began.

There was a sudden blast of sound from overhead--the banging of
machine guns, the bark of the store's 20-mm auto-ca