his prison. Carefully he
transferred to the vessel the motley assortment of containers of
Vee-Two, and after a quick check-up to make sure that he had overlooked
nothing, he shot his craft straight up into the air. Then only did he
close his ultra-wave circuits and speak.

"Clio, Bradley--I got away clean, without a bit of trouble. Now I'm
coming after you, Clio."

"Oh, it's wonderful that you got away, Conway!" the girl exclaimed. "But
hadn't you better get Captain Bradley first? Then, if anything should
happen, he would be of some use, while I...."

"I'll knock him into an outside loop if he does!" the captain snorted,
and Costigan went on:

"You won't need to. You come first, Clio, of course. But you're too far
away for me to see you with my spy, and I don't want to use the
high-powered beam of this boat for fear of detection; so you'd better
keep on talking, so that I can trace you."

"That's one thing I _am_ good at!" Clio laughed in sheer relief. "If
talking were music, I'd be a full brass band!" and she kept up a flow of
inconsequential chatter until Costigan told her that it was no longer
necessary; that he had established the line.

"Any excitement around there yet?" he asked her then.

"Nothing unusual that I can see," she replied. "Why? Should there be
some?"

"I hope not, but when I made my getaway I couldn't kill them all, of
course, and I thought maybe they might connect things up with my
jail-break and tell the other cities to take steps about you two. But I
guess they're pretty well disorganized back there yet, since they can't
know who hit them, or what with, or why. I must have got about everybody
that wasn't sealed up somewhere, and it doesn't stand to reason that
those who are left can check up very closely for a while yet. But
they're nobody's fools--they'll certainly get conscious when I snatch
you, maybe before ... there, I see your city, I think."

"What are you going to do?"

"Same as I did back there, if I can. Poison their primary air and all
the water I can reach...."

"Oh, Conway!" Her voice rose to a scream. "They must know--they're all
getting out of the water and are rushing inside the buildings as fast as
they possibly can!"

"I see they are," grimly. "I'm right over you now, 'way up. Been
locating their primary intake. They've got a dozen ships around it, and
have guards posted all along the corridors leading to it; and _those
guards are wearing masks_! They're clever bi