etween her and the threatened wall, ready
for any emergency. But nothing more happened; the door remained closed,
the cell stayed bottle-tight, and time wore slowly on. All too soon the
unmistakable symptoms of breathing an unfit atmosphere made themselves
apparent and Stevens, after testing each of the doors, drew the girl
into a larger room, where they breathed deeply of the fresh, cool air.

"How did you know that this room was whole?" asked Nadia. "We might have
stepped out into space, mightn't we?"

"No; if this room had lost its tightness, the door wouldn't have opened.
They won't open if there's a difference of one kilogram pressure on the
two sides. That's how I knew that the room we were in at first was cut
in two--the door into that air-break wouldn't move."

"What comes next?"

"I don't know exactly what to do--we'd better hold a little council of
war. They may have gone..." Stevens broke off as the structure began
to move, and they settled down upon what had been one of the side-walls.
Greater and greater became the acceleration, until their apparent weight
was almost as much as it would have been upon the Earth, at which point
it became constant. "... but they haven't," he continued the interrupted
sentence. "This seems to be a capture and seizure, as well as an attack,
so we'll have to take the risk of looking at them. Besides, it's getting
cold in here. One or two of the adjoining cells have apparently been
ruptured and we're radiating our heat out into space, so we'll have to
get into a life-boat or freeze. I'll go pick out the best one. Wonder
if I'd better take you with me, or hide you and come back after you?"

"Don't worry about that--I'm coming with you," Nadia declared, positively.

"Just as well, probably," he assented, and they set out. A thorough
exploration of all the tight connecting cells revealed that not a
lifeboat within their reach remained intact, but that habitable and
navigable portions of three such craft were available. Selecting the
most completely equipped of these, they took up their residence therein
by entering it and closing the massive insulating door. Stevens
disconnected all the lights save one, and so shielded that one before
turning it on that it merely lightened the utter darkness into a
semi-permeable gloom. He then stepped up to the lookout plate, and with
his hand upon the control, pondered long the possible consequences of
what he wished to do.

"What harm woul