* * * * *

There was a flash of color that swept by the open port--some flying
creature of vivid crimson: Chet had no time to see what manner of bird
or beast it was. But it was alive! He crossed to examine the
spectro-analyzer, and the two men disregarded his order and slipped into
the rear cabin.

"Seems all clear to me, Walt," he said; and Harkness confirmed his
findings with a quick glance.

"O.K.!" he assured Chet; "that air is all right to breathe."

He glanced from a lookout port. "The air's moving now," he said. "That
gas--whatever it was--is gone; it must have settled down here in the
night. Some new vent that has opened since we were here before.

"But suppose we forget that and settle matters in here," he suggested;
and Chet nodded assent.

"Call your men!" Harkness ordered Schwartzmann.

The man had recovered his composure; again his heavy face was flushed
beneath a stubble of beard. He made no move to comply with Harkness'
demand.

But there was no need: from the cabin at the rear came the scientist,
Kreiss. His face was pale and drawn, and he stared long and searchingly
at Chet Bullard. His breath still whistled in his throat; the poison gas
had nearly done for him.

At his heels were the two who had been working at the port. Two others,
who had held Harkness, were drawn off at one side, where they mumbled
one to another and shot ugly glances toward Chet.

This, Chet knew, accounted for all. Even the pilot, Max, had roused from
the sleep that a blow on the chin had induced and was again on his feet.
For him no explanation was needed; the shattered cage of the
ball-control told its own story.

Harkness seated Mademoiselle Delacouer on a bench at the pilot's post.
"You will want to be in on this," he told her, "but I'll put you here in
case they get rough. But don't worry," he added; "we'll be ready for
them now."

* * * * *

Then he turned to Schwartzmann: "Now, you! Oh, there are plenty of
things I could call you! And you would understand them perfectly, though
they are all words that no gentleman would use."

At Schwartzmann's outburst of profane rejoinder, Harkness broke in with
no uncertain tones.

"Shut up, Schwartzmann, and stay that way; I'm giving the orders now.
And we'll just cut out all the pleasantries; they won't get us anywhere.
We must face the situation, all of us; see what we're up against and
make some plans."