n. "The captain
is right."

"I won't do it," Kenniston repeated. "I have an idea by which we might
be able to take the _Falcon_. We're going to try it."

"Be reasonable, Kenniston," pleaded Hugh Murdock. "None of us except
Holk Or has a weapon. What chance would we have against half a hundred
armed pirates?"

* * * * *

Kenniston looked at his brother. "Ricky, your formula strengthens the
nervous system against any form of shock or damage, doesn't it? You
said it did it by sheathing the nerves themselves with an impenetrable
coating."

Ricky nodded puzzledly. "Yes, that's the principle. But how is that
going to help us?"

"The Vestans," Kenniston reminded, "seize control of their victims by
inserting those tiny needle antennae of theirs into the victim's
nerve-system to establish contact. Wouldn't your formula insulate the
nerves against such contact? Wouldn't it make a man immune to Vestan
attack?"

"Why, it would!" Ricky declared wonderingly. "I never thought of it,
yet it's entirely logical."

"Then," Kenniston said swiftly, "I want you to give every one of us,
including yourself, an injection of the formula right now."

The driving purpose in his voice brushed aside all their bewildered
questions and objections. Hastily, Ricky prepared his hypodermics and
rapidly made an injection of the milky fluid into the big
nerve-centers in the neck of each of them. Kenniston did the same for
Ricky himself.

"We _should_ be immune now to Vestan attack," Kenniston said
prayerfully.

"But what good's that going to do us?" Holk Or demanded. "Are you
figuring to try an escape into the jungle?"

"No, I'm figuring on taking the _Falcon_--by using the Vestans,"
Kenniston replied. "Holk, can you get into the ship and turn off the
power that keeps the electric wall going? Can you drop the wall?"

The Jovian's jaw dropped. "Why, sure, I could do that, but if I did,
all those hordes of Vestans outside the wall will burst in here--"

He stopped, his eyes bulging. "Good God, then that's your plan? To let
the Vestans in?"

"That's it," Kenniston said tightly, his face grim. "To let the
Vestans in on the pirates. That'll give us a chance to take the
ship--if the formula really makes us immune to the Vestans."

The terrible nature of the proposal stunned them all. But in a moment
a flame of purpose lit in the Jovian's eyes.

"I'll do it!" he swore. "It's better than waiting for Dark to kil