you may
sorely need before this expedition is done. Second, you deny a human
being who is just as eager as you are for life and the spice of
adventure, just as hungry for excitement as you or any man here--you
deny me all this, everything, just because a stupid accident of birth
made me a woman!"

Her clenched right fist passionately struck the table at her side.

"A man's world! That's what this world is called; that's what it is!
And you--of all men--are living down to that idea! You--_the Master!_"

The man's face changed color. It grew a little pale, with deepening
lines. He passed a hand over his forehead, a hand that for the first
time trembled with indecision. His strong teeth gnawed at his lower
lip. Never before had he lacked words, but now he found none.

The woman exclaimed, her voice incisive, eager, her eyes burning:

"It is because you _are_ a master of men, and of yourself, that I have
taken this chance! It is because I have heard of your absolute sense
of justice and fair play, your appreciation of unswerving loyalty
and of the heart that dares! Now you understand. I have only one more
thing to say."

"And what is that?"

"If you respect my secret and let me go with you on this great
enterprise, no man aboard the Eagle of the Sky will serve you any more
loyally than I. No man will venture more, endure more, suffer more--if
suffering has to be. I give you my word of honor on that, as a fighter
and--a woman!"

"Your word of honor as--"

"A woman! Do you understand?"

Silence again. Their eyes met. The Master's were first to lower.

"Your life is spared," he answered. "That is a concession to your sex,
madam. Had you been a man, I would inevitably have put you to death.
As it is, you shall live. And you shall remain with us--"

"Thank God for that!"

"Till we reach land. There you must leave _Nissr_."

"I shall not leave it alive," the woman declared, her eyes showing
dilated pupils of resentment, of anger. "I haven't come this far to be
thrown aside like a bit of worthless gear!"

"You and your machine will be cast off, over the first land we touch,"
the Master repeated doggedly. "Whatever information you may give,
cannot injure us, and--"

"Stop! Not another word like that, to me!"

Her eyes were blazing now; her right fist quivered in air.

"You accuse me of treason," she cried. "Oh, what injustice, what--"

"I accuse you of nothing, save of having deceived us all, and of being