houlder Damis' hand shot out. Still holding the
wrist of the Viceroy in a grip of steel, he emerged from his hiding
place, tearing off the black wig and beard which disguised him.

"Damis!" cried Lura in wonder and delight as she saw him.

* * * * *

Glavour stared with unbelieving eyes for a moment and then a hoarse cry
of alarm burst from his lips. Desperately he strove to release his
wrist from the Nepthalim's grip, but to no avail. He disengaged his
crippled arm from the scarf which supported it and groped under his robe
for a weapon. Lura cried out in warning, but Damis had anticipated such
a move. With a quick effort he whirled about and drew the Viceroy's arm
over his shoulder. He bent forward and exerted his full strength. The
huge bulk of Glavour rose in the air and pitched forward over Damis'
shoulder. There was a crash as he landed on the marble floor. Quick as a
cat, Damis sprang on him and pinioned down his arms.

"Take his weapons, Lura!" he cried.

Lura bent over the prostrate form of the Jovian to take from his belt
the tubes which he habitually carried there. As she stooped, Glavour
raised one of his huge feet and struck her with all the force of his
mighty thighs behind the blow. With a cry of pain, Lura flew halfway
across the room. Damis leaped to her assistance, forgetting for a moment
the potentialities for destruction which the Viceroy bore on his person.
A sudden sound made him whirl about. He bent over Lura and picked her
from the floor. With her in his arms he leaped to one side just as a
flash of violet light stabbed through the air. It missed them by inches.
He dropped Lura on a rug and turned to face Glavour.

On the Jovian's face was an expression of fiendish triumph. In his hand
was a short black tube which he aimed with deliberate slowness at the
crouching Nepthalim. Damis shifted his gaze from the Viceroy's eyes and
concentrated it on the muscles of his wrist. Glavour's grip tightened
and Damis leaped to one side as the violet light again stabbed the air.
With an oath, Glavour swung the deadly ray in an arc trying to reach the
Nepthalim, but Damis moved like a cat. Once, as the ray almost touched
him, he sprang high in the air and let it sweep by under him. With each
movement he came nearer to the Viceroy. Slowly the violet began to lose
its intensity of color. Glavour dropped it and reached for a second
tube. Before he could draw one, Dami