ntline reached that
conclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.

18

During this time, on the _Star-Streak_, as we and the Wandl fleet made
that preliminary circuit of the Moon, an incident occurred which
changed everything for me. I had noticed several times as we gathered
in the _Star-Streak's_ forward turret, that Venza and Anita were eying
me. Their expressions were furtive, but I realized that they were
trying to attract my attention.

We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that
rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo kept me busy with
computations of our course.

We rounded the Moon. We gathered with the Wandl fleet some twenty
thousand miles above the lunar surface, and I watched that ship
descend and land. Like Grantline, I wondered what for. Molo gave me no
hint. I saw, through his 'scope, bloated figures in pressure suits
unloading mechanisms. They seemed to be placing huge contact-discs in
a circle on the lunar rocks. It was reminiscent of the Wandl gravity
station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New
York.

Then at last the girls had an opportunity to whisper to me. A swift
phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."

I gasped. Snap alive?

"Planning to rescue us. You and he can capture the _Star-Streak_!"

"Anita! Tell me how."

"No more now! Our room below--he's near it. He spoke to us."

No more. She moved away from me. But it was enough. Snap alive! I
recalled that when he fell beside the ship, no one had bothered to go
down after the body, and at that time the hull-ports were open.

After a time Meka took the girls below. I sat with Molo, gazing down
at the dark and gloomy surface of the Moon. I had finished the
mathematical work Molo had given me. My thoughts were with Anita and
Venza, down in their cabin now with Meka. Perhaps even now Snap was
joining them.

I hardly heard Molo's low, muttered curses, as he set his lenses for a
slight alteration of our slow circular course among the Wandl fleet.
"That fellow at my gravity-shifts acts like a nitwit. He has them
disarranged."

It snapped me to sudden alertness. "Something wrong, Molo? Nonsense!"

"These men of my crew answer my controls too slowly. They should jump
when my signals come."

The plates suddenly shifted normally, but there had been an interval
of delay. Molo was puzzled and annoyed. My heart pounded as I wondered
if