ery
willing."

"I wish," said Moa, "we had Haljan safely hidden. If he is
hurt--killed--"

So that was why Miko had tried to capture me? To keep me safe so that
I might navigate the ship.

It occurred to me that I should get Carter at once. A plot to seize
the _Planetara_--but when?

I froze with startled horror.

The diaphragms at my ears rang with Miko's words: "I have set the time
for now--two minutes--"

It seemed to startle Rankin and George Prince as much as it did me.
Both exclaimed: "No!"

"No? Why not? Everyone is at his post!"

Prince repeated, "No!"

And Rankin, "But can we trust them? The stewards--the crew?"

"Eight of them are our own men! You didn't know that, Rankin? They've
been aboard the _Planetara_ for several voyages. Oh, this is no
quickly planned affair, even though we let you in on it so recently.
You and Johnson.... By God!"

There was a commotion in the stateroom. I crouched, tense. Miko had
discovered that his insulation had been cut off! He had evidently
leaped to his feet. I heard a chair overturn. And the Martian's roar:
"It's off! Did you do that, Prince? By God, if I thought--"

My apparatus went suddenly dead as Miko flung on his insulation. I
lost my wits in the confusion: I should have instantly taken off my
vibrations. There was interference: it showed in the dark space of the
ventilator grid over Miko's doorway, a snapping in the air, there--a
swirl of sparks.

I heard with my unaided ears Miko's roar over his insulation: "By God,
they're listening!"

The scream of hand sirens sounded from his stateroom. It rang over the
ship. His signal! I heard it answered from some distant point. And
then a shot: a commotion in the lower corridors....

The attack upon the _Planetara_ had begun!

I was on my feet. The shouts of startled passengers sounded, a turmoil
beginning everywhere.

I stood momentarily transfixed. The door of Miko's stateroom burst
open. He stood there, with Rankin, Moa and George Prince crowding him.

He saw me. "You, Gregg Haljan!"

He came leaping at me.

XII

I was taken wholly by surprise. There was an instant when I stood
numbed, fumbling for a weapon at my belt, undecided whether to run or
stand my ground. Miko was no more than twenty feet from me. He checked
his forward rush. The light from an overhead tube was on him: I saw in
his hand the cylinder projector of his paralyzing ray.

I plucked my heat cylinder from my belt, and f