and Grim Hagen's head and shoulders
filled the screen.

Odin gasped in amazement. Grim Hagen was nearly twenty years older than
when he had seen him last.

The shoulders and arms were larger although there appeared to be little fat
upon Grim Hagen. The dark hair was streaked with gray. The face was seamed,
and though the black eyes still blazed they now burned with a fanatic hate
and desperation. Where pride and ambition had once made a face coldly
handsome, there was now nothing but seamed lines like scars and blazing
eyes. It was an evil face. Grim Hagen had become a devil.

Hagen looked at the much younger Ato and laughed. "So, the cub comes to
fight with the tiger? Didn't you know? Didn't you guess? While you came
galloping after me, I had already landed within this system. And time began
its old alnage. These were a peaceful people. We wrecked them. We enslaved
them and built the nine worlds in our own fashion. Nearly nineteen years,
Ato! No Caesar ever dreamed of a larger kingdom. I even gave them a new
goddess--for I did not want them to do much thinking. Yonder." He pointed
to the duplicate Taj Mahal in the distance. "She sleeps. My only failure.
No older. And sometimes I go there and look at her, and my youth seems to
walk beside me--"

"We want the people that you brought with you, Grim Hagen," Ato answered
coldly. "And the treasures."

Grim Hagen laughed again. "Those that came with me willingly are dukes and
kings beyond their wildest dreams. Those who would not take oath to serve
me are still slaves. Except for Maya, who sleeps. As for the treasures, my
treasure houses are so full now that I doubt if I could separate one thing
from the other. So youth grows old. But you must admit that this is better
than cringing in a hole in the ground--"

"None of us cringed, unless it was you," Ato retorted angrily. "We
have come beyond time and space--for Maya and her friends--for the
treasures--and for you--"

The mad light flamed in Grim Hagen's eyes as he laughed again. "You could
not get a thousand feet into the air unless I permitted it. Come, now, I
have given a week's truce. Relax and enjoy yourselves. After all, we are
kinsmen in a far country." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and repeated.
"A far country."

* * * * *

Three days had passed since they had landed on Grim Hagen's planet. Ato,
Gunnar, Odin, and a score of others had gone into the city where they had
been