iday and Eliot Leithgow and two or three others were friends and
very precious to him, and they received all the emotion in his tough,
hard soul. Especially Leithgow--old, alone, dishonored on Earth, frail
and nearing the end of the long years--he needed protection. He had
trusted Carse.

Trusted him! And now this!

Ku Sui's fingers were prodding Leithgow's head like that of any dumb
animal chosen as subject for experimentation. Prodding.... Feeling....

"I can't stand it!" the Hawk whispered again.

The mask on his face, that famous self-imposed mask that hid all
emotion, had broken. Lines were there, deep with agony; tiny drops of
sweat stood out all over. He saw Ku Sui pick up something and adjust it
to his grip while looking down at the man who lay, now strapped on the
table. He saw him nod curtly to an assistant; saw the anesthetic
cylinder wheeled up a little closer, and the dials on it set to
quivering....

His hands came up and covered his eyes. But only for a moment. He would
not be able to keep his sight away. That was the exquisite torture the
Eurasian had counted on: he well knew as he had arranged it that the
adventurer would not be able to hold his eyes from the screen. Carse had
to look!

He took away his hands and raised his eyes.

The screen was blank!

* * * * *

Friday looked up with a grin from where he was kneeling before the knob
on the door of the cell. Carse saw that the knob was of metal, centered
in an inset square of some dull fibrous composition.

"This door has an electric lock, suh," the negro explained rapidly. "And
things worked by electricity can often be short-circuited!"

Quickly and silently he had disconnected from the television projector
the wire which led back through the ventilating slit in the wall, and
now was holding its end with one hand while with the other he twisted
out the screw which held in the knob. "Anyway, won't hurt to try," he
said, removing the screw and laying it on the floor. In another second
the knob lay beside it, and he was squinting into the hole where it had
fitted.

"Be quick!" Carse whispered.

Friday did not answer. He was guessing at the location of the mechanism
within, and trying to summon up all the knowledge he had of such things.
After a moment he bent one of the live ends of the wire he was holding
into a gentle curve and felt his way down within the lock with it,
carefully keeping the oth