little son with the strength of his father...." Her words echoed in
my mind. Was Anita afraid of this Martian's wooing? Yet held to him by
some power he might have over her brother? The vagrant thought struck
me.

Was it that?

CHAPTER VIII

_A Scream in the Night_

We kept, on the Planetara, always the time and routine of our port of
departure. The rest of that afternoon and evening were a blank of
confusion to me. Anita's words; the touch of my hand upon her arm; that
vast realm of what might be for us, like a glimpse of a magic land of
happiness which I had seen in her eyes, and perhaps she had seen in
mine--all this surged within me.

I wandered about the vessel. I was not hungry. I did not go to the
dining salon for dinner. I carried Johnson food and water to his cage;
and sat, with my heat-cylinder upon him, listening to his threats of
what would happen when he could complain to the Line's higher
officials.

But what was Johnson doing carrying a plan of the ship's control rooms
in his pockets? And worse: How had he dared open Snap's box in the
helio-room and abstract the code pass-words for this voyage? Without
them we would be an outlawed vessel, subject to arrest if any patrol
hailed us. Had Johnson been planning to sell those pass-words to Miko? I
thought so. I tried to get the confession out of him, but could not.

I had a brief consultation with Captain Carter. He was genuinely
apprehensive now. The Planetara carried no long-range guns, and very few
side-arms. A half-dozen of the heat-ray hand projectors; a few
old-fashioned weapons of explosion-rifles and automatic revolvers. And
hand projectors with the new Benson curve-light. We had models of this
for curved vision, so that one might see around a corner, so to speak.
And with them, we could project the heat-ray in a curve as well.

* * * * *

The weapons were all in Carter's chart-room, save the few we officers
always carried. Carter was apprehensive, but of what he could not say.
He had not thought that our plan to stop at the Moon for treasure could
affect this outward voyage. Any danger would be upon the way back, when
the Planetara would be adequately guarded with long-range electronic
guns, and manned with police-soldiers.

But now we were practically defenseless....

I had a moment with Venza, but she had nothing new to communicate to
me.

And for half an hour I chatted with George Prince. He seemed a