ed toward Bradley, now doubly helpless;
paralyzed by his enemies and gassed by his friends. For a time the
Nevians melted away before them, but as they approached more nearly the
couch upon which the captain was they encountered six figures encased in
armor fully as capable as their own. The beams of the Lewistons
rebounded from that armor in futile pyrotechnics, the bullets of the
automatics spattered and exploded impotently against it. And behind that
single line of armored guards were massed perhaps twenty unarmored, but
masked, soldiers; and scuttling up the ramps leading into the hall were
coming the platoons of heavily armored figures which Costigan had
previously seen.

Decision instantly made, Costigan ran back toward the speedster, but he
was not deserting his companions.

"Keep the good work up!" he instructed the girl as he ran. "I'll pick
those jaspers off with a pencil and then stand off the bunch that's
coming while you rub out the rest of that crew there and drag Bradley
back here."

Back at the control panel, he trained a narrow, but intensely dense
beam--quasi-solid lightning--and one by one the six armored figures
fell. Then, knowing that Clio could handle the remaining opposition, he
devoted his attention to the reenforcements so rapidly approaching from
the sides. Again and again the heavy beam lashed out, now upon this
side, now upon that, and in its flaming path Nevians disappeared. And
not only Nevians--in the incredible energy of that beam's blast floor,
walls, ramps, and every material thing vanished in clouds of thick and
brilliant vapor. The room temporarily clear of foes, he sprang again to
Clio's assistance, but her task was nearly done. She had "rubbed out"
all opposition and, tugging lustily at Bradley's feet, had already
dragged him almost to the side of the speedster.

"At-a-girl, Clio!" cheered Costigan, as he picked up the burly captain
and tossed him through the doorway. "Highly useful, girl of my dreams,
as well as ornamental. In with you, and we'll go places!"

But getting the speedster out of the now completely ruined hall proved
to be much more of a task than driving it in had been, for scarcely had
Costigan closed his locks than a section of the building collapsed
behind them, cutting off their retreat. Nevian submarines and airships
were beginning to arrive upon the scene, and were beaming the building
viciously in an attempt to entrap or to crush the foreigners in its
rui