n, hesitated a moment, and
then shot suddenly into the apartment with a hissing sound, flinging
into a far corner one of the guards who had not been quick enough to
duck. As the captain drew his disintegrator pistol, it launched itself
at him with a vicious hiss. He bounded back from the impact, his chest
crushed in, while his pistol, which fortunately had fallen with its
muzzle pointed away from me, shot a continuous beam that melted its way
instantly through the apartment wall.

* * * * *

The sphere then turned on the other guard, who had thrown himself into a
corner where he crouched in fear. Deliberately it seemed to gauge the
distance and direction. Then it hurled itself at him with another
vicious hiss, which I now saw came from a little rocket motor, crushing
him to death where he lay.

It swung slowly around until the lens faced me again, and floated gently
into position level with my face, seeming to scan me with its blank,
four-inch eye. Then it spoke, with a metallic voice.

"If you are an American," it said, "answer with your name, gang and
position."

"I am Anthony Rogers," I replied, still half bewildered, "Boss of the
Wyomings. I was captured by the Hans after my swooper was disabled in a
fight with a Han airship and had drifted many hundred miles westward.
These Hans you have killed were my guard."

"Good!" ejaculated the metal ball. "We have been hunting for you with
these remote control rockets for two weeks. We knew you had been
captured. A Han message was picked up. Close the door of your room, and
hide this ball somewhere. I have turned off the rocket power. Put it on
your couch. Throw some pillows over it. Get out of sight. We'll speak
softly, so no Hans can hear, and we'll speak only when you speak to us."

The ball, I found, was floating freely in the air. So perfectly was it
balanced with ultron and inertron that it had about the weight of a
spider web. Ultimately, I suppose, it would have settled to the floor.
But I had no time for such an idle experiment. I quickly pushed it to my
couch, where I threw a couple of pillows and some of the bed clothes
over it. Then I threw myself back on the couch with my head near it. If
the dead guards outside attracted attention, and the Han patrol entered,
I could report the attack by the "air ball" and claim that I had been
knocked unconscious by it.

"One moment," said the ball, after I reported myself ready to talk.