ching on all fours against the side
of the cabin and ferociously baring his teeth.

"What's the matter down there?" called Winford sharply.

Six pairs of eyes looked up at him. Agar forgot he was a dog and stared
with the rest. They were an unkempt, ragged lot with unshaven faces and
the dirty, white canvas uniforms of mine prisoners. The group was
composed of four Martians and two Venusians.

"Let's go back," growled Nizzo, whose squat, powerful body and long arms
bespoke his Venus ancestry. "It's death out here. No food. No water,
excepting the emergency ration you have up there in the box. That will
scarcely last till we can reach Mercury again. Now you tell us that the
fuel is nearly exhausted. Let's go back. I say! We don't want to swing
about the Sun in this as our tomb for all eternity. At least we eat and
drink at the mines, even though the whips of the drivers hurry us on to
an early death."

"You're crazy, Nizzo," harshly retorted Winford. "You know what they do
when escaped prisoners are brought back, or come of their own free will.
The Universe knows nothing of the caged saurians in the warden's
gardens, nor of the incorrigible prisoners that go to feed them. But I
know--we all of us know. Far better to remain out here and die whole,
than to be devoured alive by a slobbering horror."

A heated argument ensued among the men below. Presently Nizzo looked up
again.

"But you have no plan," he shouted at the Earthman. "We have followed
you blindly so far, and here we are off the traffic lanes. Our only hope
of being picked up now is one of space patrol ships. And short shrift
may we expect from them!"

Winford scowled impatiently.

"Listen, men," he began. "This is a desperate venture, I know, and I
picked every one of you carefully. You are not common scum of the prison
mines. Every man of you can be depended upon to put through a daring
escape of this nature. Every man of you is an innocent victim of the
rotten politicians and corrupt officials that now hold sway in the Three
Planets. Take Jarl there, for example." He indicated a big, patient,
resigned Martian. "He is under life sentence in the penal mines simply
because his brother-in-law wanted his lands and wealth. As for myself, I
had a sister who suffered the misfortune of being seen and coveted by
Silas Teutoberg, a member of the Earth Council...."

He choked at the thought, his pale face rigid with emotion. Those below
saw the flash of his la