suit with their long bows twanging. Closana leaned on her dripping
blade and held out her hand.

"It was a good fight, Geree. I think I will take you for my husband."

"I think," Gerry said, "We'll just leave that idea for discussion some
other time."

* * * * *

The fleeing survivors of the Scaly Ones had gone, with companies of
light armed Amazons in hot pursuit. The others were tending the wounded
and gathering up the dead, picking up fallen weapons, doing all the
routine tasks that are the aftermath of battle. Closana was now
surrounded by a body-guard of tall, blonde Amazons whose loin-cloths
bore the same design of a golden arrow-head as her own.

"I think," she said to Gerry, "that you should come to see my father
Rupin-Sang, who is ruler of this land."

Quite a thinker, decided Gerry.

"We can take you there in the ship if you show us the way," he said
shortly.

A horde of Amazons thronged around the big blue-and-silver hull of the
_Viking_ where she lay in the knee-high grass. As the members of the
landing party filed on board and turned their ray-tubes in to the
Ordnance Officer to be recharged, the other members of the crew came out
to stare at the visitors. Angus McTavish stood on the steps of the
ladder with his big fists on his hips.

"Will ye look at all the bonny lassies!" he said, "This may not be such
a bad planet after all."

The feminine warriors of Venus saw McTavish then, and a sudden murmur
swept over the throng. An instant later a hundred blades flashed in the
air in salute, and then all the Amazons dropped down on one knee.

"Now what the devil...?" muttered Steve Brent who had come out of the
ship just behind McTavish.

"Just a proper tribute to my outstanding personality, lad!" the big Scot
muttered aside. Closana read the surprise in Gerry Norton's eyes.

"There are few men in this land of Savissa," she explained, "And the
wearing of a beard is the sign of a noble of the highest rank."

"Wonder how long it will take me to grow a good crop of whiskers!" Steve
said.

Closana and a dozen of her body-guard came aboard, looking curiously
about them. As the Venusian princess walked into the control room she
came face to face with Olga Stark. For a long moment the two women
stood looking at each other, their clashing glances hard and intent. The
golden Venusian and the dark haired Earthling. Then Closana shrugged and
turned away.

"I do not like he