person a small cylinder and battery of the deadly white-ray. It
seems probable that although on the catwalk--having accomplished his
purpose of getting within the electrical fortifications of the
dam--Tugh had ample opportunity of killing his over-trustful
companions with the white-ray, he did not dare use it. The catwalk was
too dark for their figures to be visible to the Power House guards;
the roar of the spillways drowned their shouts; but had Tugh used the
white-ray, its abnormally intense actinic white beam would have raised
the alarm which Tugh most of all wanted to avoid.]

Tugh was clinging to the high outer rail of the balcony, slumped
partly over as though gazing down into the abyss. Larry rushed up and
seized him by the arms. If Tugh held a weapon Larry thought he could
easily wrest it from him. But Tugh stood limp in Larry's grip.

"What's the matter with you?" Larry demanded.

"I'm ill. Something--going wrong. Feel me--so cold. Princess! Tina!
Come quickly! I--I am dying!"

As Tina came hurrying up, Tugh suddenly straightened. With incredible
quickness, and even more incredible strength, he tore his arm loose
from Larry and flung it around the Princess, and they were suddenly
all three struggling. Tugh was shoving them back from the rail. Larry
tried to get loose from Tugh's clutch, but could not. He was too close
for a full blow, but he jabbed his fist against the cripple's body,
and then struck his face.

But Tugh was unhurt; he seemed endowed with superhuman strength. The
cripple's body seemed padded with solid muscle, and his thick,
gorilla-like arm held Larry in the grip of a vise. As though Larry and
Tina were struggling, helpless children, he was half dragging, half
carrying them across the ten-foot width of the catwalk.

Larry caught a glimpse of a narrow slit in the masonry of the dam's
wall--a dark, two-foot-wide aperture. He felt himself being shoved
toward it. For all his struggles, he was helpless. He shouted:

"Tina--look out! Break away!"

* * * * *

He forgot himself for a moment, striving to wrest her away from Tugh
and push her aside. But the strength of the cripple was monstrous:
Larry had no possible chance of coping with it. The slit in the wall
was at hand--a dark abyss down into the interior of the dam. Larry
heard the cripple's words, vehement, unhurried, as though with all
this effort he still was not out of breath:

"At last I can dispos