l mind, either that the Hans had perfected
new instruments as yet unknown to us, or that somewhere, among the
Wyomings or some other nearby gang, there were traitors so degraded as
to commit that unthinkable act of trafficking in information with the
Hans. In either contingency, she argued, other Han raids would follow,
and since the Susquannas had a highly developed organization and more
than usually productive plants, the next raid might be expected to
strike them.

But at any rate it was clearly our business to get in touch with the
other fugitives as quickly as possible, so in spite of muscles that were
sore from the excessive leaping of the day before, we continued on our
way.

We traveled for only a couple of hours when we saw a multi-colored
rocket in the sky, some ten miles ahead of us.

"Bear to the left, Tony," Wilma said, "and listen for the whistle."

"Why?" I asked.

"Haven't they given you the rocket code yet?" she replied. "That's what
the green, followed by yellow and purple means; to concentrate five
miles east of the rocket position. You know the rocket position itself
might draw a play of disintegrator beams."

It did not take us long to reach the neighborhood of the indicated
rallying, though we were now traveling beneath the trees, with but an
occasional leap to a top branch to see if any more rocket smoke was
floating above. And soon we heard a distant whistle.

We found about half the Gang already there, in a spot where the trees
met high above a little stream. The Big Boss and Raid Bosses were busy
reorganizing the remnants.

We reported to Boss Hart at once. He was silent, but interested, when he
heard our story.

"You two stick close to me," he said, adding grimly, "I'm going back to
the valley at once with a hundred picked men, and I'll need you."

CHAPTER V

Setting the Trap

Inside of fifteen minutes we were on our way. A certain amount of
caution was sacrificed for the sake of speed, and the men leaped away
either across the forest top, or over open spaces of ground, but
concentration was forbidden. The Big Boss named the spot on the hillside
as the rallying point.

"We'll have to take a chance on being seen, so long as we don't group,"
he declared, "at least until within five miles of the rallying spot.
From then on I want every man to disappear from sight and to travel
under cover. And keep your ultrophones open, and tuned on
ten-four-seven-six."

Wilma and I h