ead announcement. "They have it all
figured out. They're not taking any chances at all--they're going to
paral...." His voice broke off in the middle of the word.

With a bitter imprecation Costigan flashed on the powerful ultra-beam
projector of the speedster and focused the plate upon Bradley's prison;
careless now of detection, since the Nevians were already warned. Upon
that plate he watched the Nevians carry the helpless body of the captain
into a small boat, and continued to watch as they bore it into one of
the largest buildings of the city. Up a series of ramps they took the
still form, placing it finally upon a soft couch in an enormous and
heavily guarded central hall. Costigan turned to his companion, and even
through the helmets she could see plainly the white agony of his
expression. He moistened his lips and tried twice to speak--tried and
failed; but he made no move either to cut off their power or to change
their direction.

"Of course," she approved steadily. "We are going through. I know that
you _want_ to run with me, but if you actually did it I would never want
to see you or hear of you again, and you would hate me forever."

"Hardly that." The anguish did not leave his eyes and his voice was
hoarse and strained, but his hands did not vary the course of the
speedster by so much as a hair's breadth. "You're the finest little
fellow that ever waved a plume, and I would love you no matter what
happened. I'd trade my immortal soul to the devil if it would get you
out of this mess, but we're both in it up to our necks and we can't back
out now. If they kill him we beat it--he and I both knew that it was on
the chance of that happening that I took you first--but as long as all
three of us are alive it's all three or none."

"Of course," she said again, as steadily, thrilled this time to the
depths of her being by the sheer manhood of him who had thus simply
voiced his Code; a man of such fiber that neither love of life nor his
infinitely greater love for her could make him lower its high standard.
"We are going through. Forget that I am a woman. We are three human
beings, fighting a world full of monsters. I am simply one of us three.
I will steer your ship, fire your projectors, or throw your bombs. What
can I do best?"

"Throw bombs," he directed, briefly. He knew what must be done were they
to have even the slightest chance of winning clear. "I'm going to blast
a hole down into that auditorium, an