they
lay there: long thin knives with straight and curved cutting edges;
handled wires, curved into hooks and eccentric corkscrew shapes;
scalpels of different sizes; forceps, clasps, retractors, odd metal
claws, circular saw-blades and a variety of other unclassified
instruments. Sterilizers were convenient to one side, a thin wraith of
steam drifting up from them into the source of the light.

Four men worked within the brilliant shaft of illumination--four
white-clad figures, hands gloved and faces swathed in surgeons' masks.
Only their lifeless eyes were visible, concentrated on their tasks of
preparation. Steam rose in increased mists as one figure lifted back the
lid of a sterilizer and dropped in some gleaming instruments. The cloud
swirled around his masked face and body with devilish infernolike
effect.

All this in deadest silence. From the darkness came another figure, tall
and commanding, a shape whose black silk garments struck a new note in
the dazzling whiteness of the scene. He was pulling on operating gloves.
His slanted eyes showed keen and watchful through the eyeholes of the
mask he already wore, as he surveyed the preparations. Ominous Ku Sui
looked, among his white-clad assistants.

The Eurasian seemed to give an order, and a white figure turned and
glanced off into the surrounding darkness, raising one hand. A door
showed in faint outline as it opened. Through the door two shadows
moved, wheeling something long and flat between them.

They came into the light, two coolies, and wheeled their conveyance
alongside the operating table. Then they turned into the darkness and
were gone.

"Oh!" gasped Friday. "They've shaved off his head!"

* * * * *

The frail form of Eliot Leithgow, clad to the neck in loose white
garments, showed clearly as he was lifted to the operating table. As
Friday said, his hair was all gone--shaved off close--stunning
verification of what was to happen. Awfully alone and helpless he
looked, yet his face was calm and he lay there composed, watching his
soulless inquisitors with keen blue eyes. But his expression altered
when Dr. Ku appeared over him and felt and prodded his naked head.

"I can't stand this!"

It was a whisper of agony in the silence of the cell where the two men
stood watching, a cry from the fiber of the Hawk's innermost self. The
path he left across the frontiers of space was primarily a lonely one;
but Fr