material. I did not need to look at
the compact tool kit and the ray machines attached to his heavy belt,
nor the gorgeously jewelled armlet and diadem that he wore to know him
for a repair man.

The girl was quite scantily clad, but wore a mask, which was not unusual
among the Han women when they went forth on their flirtatious
expeditions, and there was something about the sinuous grace of her
movements that seemed familiar to me. She was making desperate love to
the repair man, whose attitude toward her was that of pleased but lofty
tolerance. The soldier, who was seeking no trouble, occupied himself
strictly with his own thoughts and paid little attention to them.

I stepped from my car, still carrying my bundle in which the "air ball"
was concealed, and the car shot away as I threw the release lever over.
Not so successful as the soldier in simulating lack of interest in the
amorous girl and her companion, I drew from the latter a stare of
haughty challenge, and the girl herself turned to look at me through her
mask.

She gasped as she did so, and shrank back in alarm. And I knew her then
in spite of her mask. She was the favorite of the Heaven-Born himself.

"Ngo-Lan!" I exclaimed before I could catch myself.

At the mention of her name, the soldier's head jerked up quickly, and
the girl herself gave a little cry of terror, shrinking against her
burly companion. This would mean death for her if it reached the ears of
her lord.

And her companion, arrogant in his immunity as a repair man, hesitated
not a second. His arm shot out toward the soldier, who was nearer to him
than I. There was the flash of a knife blade, and the soldier sagged on
his feet, then tumbled over like a sack of potatoes, and before my mind
had grasped the danger, he had swept the girl aside and was springing at
me.

* * * * *

That I lived for a moment even was due to the devotion of my wife,
Wilma, who somewhere in the mountains to the east was standing loyally
before the control board of the air ball I carried.

For even as the Han leaped at me, the bundle containing the air ball,
which I had placed at my feet, shot diagonally upward, catching the
fellow in the middle of his leap, hurling him back against the grilled
gate of the elevator shaft, and pinning his lifeless body there.

An instant the girl gazed in speechless horror at what had been her
secret lover, then she threw herself at my feet, w