a vertical lift
to the roof. We were in the side entrance oval of the restaurant in
five minutes.

In the dim metal room of Orentino, the Red Spark's manager, a barrage
was up and Foley was waiting for us. We could hear it faintly humming.
Now we could talk.

Halsey slammed the door down. He said swiftly, "My men caught one of
these things this morning. They have it now and I think Molo does not
yet know we captured it. A brain; we're convinced it understands
English and can talk, but no one has been able to make it talk yet.
Foley, order that damned Orentino to de-insulate the room Molo is in.
Now, by the gods, we may see and hear something."

The frightened manager of the Red Spark was in the control room.
Halsey killed our barrage to let the outside connections get through
to us. We all crowded around the mirror-grid which stood on Orentino's
desk. Foley gave us connection with the control room. We saw
Orentino's face, his eyes nearly popping with fright. "Colonel Halsey,
I will do whatever you tell me."

"What room is that Martian occupying?"

"Insulated 39."

"Break off the insulation. Do it slowly and he may not notice. Then
give us connection, audio and vision."

"But I have no image-finders in the insulated rooms."

"Cut off the barrage. I'll get connection there."

Foley was already setting up his eavesdropper on the desk. The mirror
blurred a little; then it clarified. We had the interior of the secret
room, and voices were coming out of Foley's tiny receiver.

The image showed the box on the floor, with its lid down. The tall
hooded shape of the stranger stood with Molo and his sister by the
table. They were talking in swift, vehement undertones. The language
was Martian, a dialect principally used in Ferrok-Shahn. Our equipment
brought it in and I could understand it.

Molo was saying: "But you are the fool to have dared to come here!"

"The master knows that there is danger. Something is wrong." The
hooded stranger spoke like a foreigner, but not a Martian, nor an
Earthman, and not like any person of Venus I had ever heard. It was a
strange, indescribable intonation, a flat, hollow voice.

"I say the master is concerned."

"Let him be."

"And he demanded I bring him here to find you. He is displeased that
you are here."

What gruesome thing was this? Their glances seemed to go to the box on
the floor at their feet, as though the master were in there. But the
lid of the box did not ris