he purser. And on the turret
balcony, two fallen men--Blackstone and the course master.

Johnson was training the spotlight on us. And Hahn fired a Martian
ray. It struck Balch beside me. He dropped.

Carter was shouting, "Inside--Gregg! Get inside!"

I stopped to raise up Balch. Another beam came down. A heat ray this
time. It caught the fallen Balch full on the chest, piercing him
through. The smell of his burning flesh rose to sicken me. He was
dead. I dropped his body. Carter shoved me into the chart room.

In the small, steel-lined room, Carter and I slid the door closed. We
were alone here. The thing had come so quickly it had taken Captain
Carter, like us all, wholly unawares. We had anticipated spying
eavesdroppers, but not this open brigandage. No more than a minute or
two had passed since Miko's siren in his stateroom had given the
signal for attack. Carter had been in the chart room. Blackstone was
in the turret. At the outbreak of confusion, Carter dashed out to see
Hahn releasing Johnson from the cage. From the forward chart room
window now I could see where Hahn with a torch had broken the cage
seal. The torch lay on the deck. There had been an exchange of shots;
Carter's arm was paralyzed; Johnson and Hahn had escaped.

Carter was as confused as I. There had simultaneously been an
encounter up in the turret. Blackstone and the course master were
killed. The lookout had been shot from his post in the forward
observatory. The body dangled now, twisted half in and half out the
window.

We could see several of Miko's men--erstwhile members of our crew and
steward corps--scurrying from the turret along the upper bridge toward
the dark and silent radio room. Snap was up there. But was he? The
radio room glowed suddenly with dim light, but there was no evidence
of a fight there. The fighting seemed mostly below the deck, down in
the hull corridors. A blended horror of sounds came up to us. Screams,
shouts and the hissing and snapping of ray weapons. Our crew--such of
them as were loyal--were making a stand below. But it was brief.
Within a minute it died away. The passengers, amidships in the
superstructure, were still shouting. Then above them Miko's roar
sounded.

"Be quiet! Go in your rooms--you will not be harmed."

The brigands in these few minutes were in control of the ship. All but
this little chart room, where, with most of the ship's weapons, Carter
and I were entrenched.

"God, Gregg, that