. These Inner Guards wore breast-plates and helmets of
a bright green metal, and their pointed ears protruded upward through
twin openings in the sides of the helmets.

Lansa's swarthy face was gloatingly triumphant. It had always been Gerry
Norton's private opinion that Walter Lansing was slightly mad. Brilliant
in many ways, but definitely unstable. At last he appeared to have
slipped over that shadowy border that divides the rational from the
insane.

"It is unfortunate that my little scheme to have you summon your
space-ship here did not work," Lansa said in English. "But we will find
some other way of persuading you to do it."

"You think you're quite the little tin god, don't you?" Gerry sneered.

"I _am_ a god--to these people," Lansa replied quietly. "Though the
_Stardust_ was damaged too badly to return to earth, little of her
equipment was harmed except for the rocket tubes themselves. Within six
months after landing I had made myself master of these primitive but
obedient people. The submarine that brought you from the city of Larr
shows what can be done with them. In the meantime I had communicated
with friends on Earth by means of a secret radio frequency, and waited
for the sending of the next space-ship...."

He broke off as a door behind the throne opened and a woman came into
the room. It was Olga Stark, now wearing a long gown of shimmering
green. Metal strands of the same color were braided into her dark hair,
which was crowned by a circlet bearing the design of a rearing serpent.
All the officers and courtiers lifted their arms in salute. The woman
walked over and stood beside Lansa's throne, looking down at Gerry with
a cold and impersonal scorn. It had not taken Olga Stark very long to
fit herself into the role of the queen of Giri-Vaaka!

* * * * *

A number of things were clear to Gerry Norton now! It had been Olga
Stark with whom Lansing had secretly communicated after he made himself
master of the Scaly Ones, and that explained her insistent requests to
join the expedition. Again, it had been Olga who had been
surreptitiously using the radio to talk to Lansing that day when Gerry
had stepped into the radio room on hearing the hum of the generator.
They had been arranging the details of his abduction. Only--who was
Olga's confederate who had knocked him over the head when he had walked
in on them that time? There was still some traitor on board the
_Viking_