yet. We'll explain later."

They sat me down, calming me.

Anita dead. The door of the shining garden was closed. A brief glimpse,
given to me and to her of what might have been. And now she was
dead....

CHAPTER X

_A Speck of Human Earth-dust, Falling Free...._

I had not been able at first to understand why Captain Carter wanted
Miko left at liberty. Within me there was that cry of vengeance, as
though to strike Miko down would somehow lessen my own grief at
Anita's loss. Whatever Carter's purpose, Snap had not known it. But
Balch and Dr. Frank were in the captain's confidence--all three of
them working on some plan of action. Snap and I argued it, and thought
we could fathom it; and in spite of my desire to kill Miko, the thing
looked reasonable.

It was obvious that at least two of our passengers were plotting with
Miko and George Prince; trying during this voyage to learn what they
could about Grantline's activities on the Moon; scheming doubtless to
seize the treasure when the Planetara stopped at the Moon on the return
voyage. I thought I could name those masquerading passengers. Ob Hahn,
supposedly a Venus Mystic. And Rance Rankin, who called himself an
American magician. Those two, Snap and I agreed, seemed most suspicious.
And there was the purser.

With my hysteria still on me, I sat for a time on the deck outside the
chart-room with Snap. Then Carter summoned us back, and we sat listening
while he, Balch and Dr. Frank went on with their conference. Listening
to them I could not but agree that our best plan was to secure evidence
which would incriminate all who were concerned in the plot. Miko, we
were convinced, had been the Martian who followed Snap and me from
Halsey's office in Great-New York. George Prince had doubtless been the
invisible eavesdropper outside the helio-room. He knew, and had told the
others, that Grantline had found radium-ore on the Moon--that the
Planetara would stop there on the way home.

* * * * *

But we could not incarcerate George Prince for being an eavesdropper.
Nor had we the faintest tangible evidence against Ob Hahn or Rance
Rankin. And even the purser would probably be released by the
Interplanetary Court of Ferrok-Shahn when it heard our evidence.

There was only Miko. We could arrest him for the murder of Anita. But
the others would be put on their guard. It was Carter's idea to let Miko
remain at liberty for a time and see i