ught. Honor, country, and so on. Well, it's
too bad. We should have made a wonderful team. However, you'll tell me
what I want to know. What are the defenses within fifty miles of New
York?"

I laughed derisively.

"You'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you tell me, Bolton. After
all, death in the ray isn't so bad. Whiff--and you're gone. Don't
force me to other measures." There was a grim threat in his voice. But
I simply shook my head.

"Stubborn, like all the other Anglo-Saxons. Well, I've got something
to show you." He raised his weapon and glanced at it. "Pretty little
thing, this. Not the ordinary ray-tube. Only field officers have
these. Look."

He pointed it at the wall from behind which that scream had come and
pressed the trigger button. A tiny round hole appeared in the steel.

"Neat, isn't it? Utilizes the same ray you saw at work in the tunnel.
The Zeta-ray we call it. Just think what that would do to human
flesh." I said nothing.

"But that isn't what I had in mind. Just look through that hole."

* * * * *

I wanted to see what was on the other side, so I obeyed. The Thing
that lay on the floor within--could it ever have been a man? I whirled
back to the Ferret in a fury, my fists clenched.

His infernal weapon was pointing straight at me. "Softly, Bolton,
softly. You'd never get to me." I checked my spring, for he was right.
"How'd you like that?" he purred.

"Some of your work, I suppose," I growled.

"The poor fool was fomenting a mutiny. We wanted to know the other
plotters. He was stubborn. What would you? Necessity knows no law....
What are the defenses around New York?" He advanced menacingly.

No answer.

"Why be a fool? This ray hurts, I tell you, when it's properly
applied. How would you like to be melted away, piece by little piece,
till you're like that in there?"

I shrugged my shoulders, but kept silent.

"I tell you it hurts. You don't believe me? That in there is
unconscious, seven-eighths dead. Listen."

He bored another hole in the steel, keeping his finger pressed on the
trigger. Again that heart-rending scream of agony rang out, tearing
its way through me. My brain exploded in red rage. I leaped for the
fiend, reckless of consequences. My fist drove into the leering face
with all the force of my spring, with all the insane fury that his
heartless cruelty had roused in me. Smack!--he catapulted across the
floor and crashed into the