sin, under your
knife, Glavour. Then it was that I swore that it would be my hand that
would strike you down. When you raised your hand against me, you were
Viceroy of the Earth and your power was secure, for the conspiracy
against you had no hope of success. What is the situation now? You are
beleaguered in your palace, holding only the ground your few feeble
weapons cover. Even this ground you hold only on the sufferance of the
Earthmen. Listen to what I say, for I wish your last moments to be
bitter ones. On the hill east of the city sit two weapons of a type and
a power unknown to both Earth and Jupiter. They are the deadly black ray
weapons of Mars. Ah, you tremble! You have good cause. One of them is
trained on this palace while the other searches the heavens, ready to
blast into powder the fleet of Tubain when it appears. And who, think
you, brought this about, Glavour? It was I, Damis, the Nepthalim, the
'half-breed bastard' whom you despised. My only regret is that I cannot
send you to the twilight of the gods as you sent that other
arch-traitor, Havenner. Are your last moments pleasant, Glavour? I am
increasing the pressure slowly so that you will have time to think, to
think of the Earthmen you have given to sacrifice and torture, to think
of your ruler, Hortan, dying under your knife, to think of the doom
which is about to overcome your race. Think, Glavour, for your time for
thought is short."

* * * * *

As he finished, Damis thrust back on the Viceroy's chin with a sudden
effort. There was a dull crack as Glavour's neck broke and Damis gently
lowered the inert bulk to the floor. He felt a touch on his arm as he
straightened up. He whirled like a cat and Lura shrank back with a
frightened gesture. Damis opened his arms and in an instant the
Earth-girl was folded in them.

"Is my father safe?" was her first question.

"Safer by far than we are," exclaimed Damis with a sudden pang of
anxiety. He glanced at the time-recording device on the wall.
Three-quarters of an hour had passed since he had first entered the
Viceregal palace. If the estimates of Tubain's arrival which he had
heard were correct, the Jovian fleet should be almost most overhead.
"Come," he cried to Lura, "we have no time to lose if we escape before
the palace and all in it are destroyed. Where did Havenner land his
ship?"

"In the yard west of the palace," she replied.

"Pray that it is stil