. After an
interminable descent in what to him had been pitch darkness, the giant
who was carrying him halted. Darl had heard the whistling inrush of
air into some lock, then the clanging of a door. He felt himself
hurled to the ground. Fumbling hands tugged at him, drew off his space
suit.

The dim light of the cavern, as the helmet was dragged from his head,
hurt Darl's eyes. Salt sweat stung them. It was hot, hotter than the
Dome, hot as it was in the surta mine, where only the nerveless
Venusians could work for any length of time.

Darl struggled to focus his eyes on a blurred blue form that towered
above him. He felt sharp claws scratch at him and realized that cords
were being passed around his limp body. They cut tightly into his legs
and his arms. Then he was staring at a tube in the hand of his captor.
Its end glowed with a brilliant purple light, and he felt a flood of
reawakened energy warm him. His head jerked up, he strained against
the taut, strong fibers binding him. The paralysis was gone, but he
was still helpless.

A husky, rumbling voice broke the silence. "I wouldn't struggle,
Earthman, if I were you. Even should you get free I still have my
ray-tube. And my little friends would ask nothing better than your
body to play with."

Darl writhed to a sitting posture. Now he could see his mysterious
abductor clearly. This eight-foot, blue-feathered individual, with
curved beak and beady eyes glittering from his naked, repulsively
wrinkled head, was a Martian! Despite the human shape of his body,
despite his jointed limbs and thumbed hands, this denizen of the red
planet resembled a vulture far more than he did any other Earth
creature.

* * * * *

The Earthman's pride of race came to his rescue. "What's the game?" he
growled. "Looking for trouble?" There was nothing in Darl's voice to
show the fear that chilled him. Behind the Martian he could see
vaguely a group of little yellow Mercurians.

"I'll ask all the questions here. And you'll answer them, too, if
you're wise. Even your dull mind should comprehend that you are in my
power."

Darl decided to proceed more cautiously. "What do you want from me?"
he asked.

"I want," the Martian answered, "the recognition signal of Earth's
space-ships."

"What!" The ejaculation burst from Darl's throat. This alien wanted
the secret code, the watch-word that distinguished Earth's space
ships, that gained for them free adm