f under his breath. Fool that he had been not to
have had the men and their baggage searched more carefully before he
allowed them to leave the freighter. Nizzo was responsible for that. He
should be--but it was too late now. No use crying over spilled milk. He
forced a grin and shrugged.

"'The best laid plans of mice and men--'" he quoted philosophically. "I
hope the entire blame for this wild venture is put on my shoulders where
it belongs when we are brought to trial. These two navigators here and
the rest of the men are in no way responsible. I forced every man of
them under pain of death to join me."

The young officer shook his head and smiled.

"Not a chance of that, Winford. You'll all stand trial alike, and you
know it. You are rather a strange sort of pirate, it seems to me, to
offer yourself as a sacrifice for your men. I'd say you are too
tender-hearted for buccaneering in the Void."

"If I had succeeded in reaching New Chicago, you might have gained a
different impression of me," retorted Winford, his lambent eyes flaming
at the thought. "I have sworn to kill Silas Teutoberg, the new governor
of Ganymede, because he sent me to die in the mines of Mercury for a
crime I never committed."

The young officer laughed.

"You can set your mind at rest about him, Winford. He was due at New
Chicago five days ago in his specially chartered space liner from New
York. Nothing was heard from his ship ten days after he left New York
with his guests aboard. His last reported position was near the Mars
orbit and since then nothing has come out of the Void. They'll just
chalk him under the 'Lost in Space' column on the admiralty boards of
the Universe and give the credit for his disappearance to some hurtling
meteor. We were on our way to search for the remains of his liner when
we intercepted the messages from Captain Robers and his men on
Callisto."

Winford's face was bleak.

"Fate has prevented me from achieving my greatest desire," he said
harshly. "To rid the Universe of that scourge to humanity would have
been one of the sweetest moments of my life. I've dreamed of it for
years."

The officer lighted a cigarette.

"Perhaps you are right, but I'd say the chance is gone in more ways than
one. Teutoberg is undoubtedly dead, and you are on your way to the gas
execution cage on Mars. Incidentally, you are now my prisoner. I'll not
lock you in the hold with the rest of your crew, but will confine you to
your