."

"But how about Doctor DuQuesne? Surely he isn't that kind of man? He
wouldn't let him."

"I've never met him before, but from what I heard of him in the office,
he's even worse than Perkins, but in an entirely different way. There's
nothing small or mean about him, and I don't believe he would go out of
his way to hurt anyone, as Perkins would. But he is absolutely cold and
hard, a perfect fiend. Where his interests are concerned, there's
nothing under the sun, good or bad, that he won't do. But I'm glad that
Perkins had me instead of 'The Doctor,' as they call him. Perkins raises
such a bitter personal feeling, that anybody would rather die than give
up to him in anything. DuQuesne, however, would have tortured me
impersonally and scientifically--cold and self-contained all the while
and using the most efficient methods, and I am sure he would have got it
out of me some way. He always gets what he goes after."

"Oh, come, Miss Spencer!" Dorothy interrupted the half-hysterical girl.
"You're too hard on him. Didn't you see him knock Perkins down when he
came after me?"

"Well, maybe he has a few gentlemanly instincts, which he uses when he
doesn't lose anything by it. More likely he merely intended to rebuke
him for a useless action. He is a firm Pragmatist--anything that is
useful is all right, anything that is useless is a crime. More probably
yet, he wants you left alive. Of course that is his real reason. He went
to the trouble of kidnapping you, so naturally he won't let Perkins or
anybody else kill you until he is through with you. Otherwise he would
have let Perkins do anything he wanted to with you, without lifting a
finger."

"I can't quite believe that," Dorothy replied, though a cold chill
struck at her heart as she remembered the inhuman crime attributed to
this man, and she quailed at the thought of being in his charge,
countless millions of miles from earth, a thought only partly
counteracted by the fact that she was now armed. "He has treated us with
every consideration so far, let's hope for the best. Anyway, I'm sure
that we'll get back safely."

"Why so sure? Have you something up your sleeve?"

"No--or yes, in a way I have, though nothing very definite. I'm Dorothy
Vaneman, and I am engaged to the man who discovered the thing that makes
this space-car go...."

"That's why they kidnapped you, then--to make him give up all his rights
to it. It's like them."

"Yes, I think that's why they