hate you.
If it were not for your knowledge of radium ores--"

"Is this to be a personal wrangle?" Rankin interrupted. "I thought we
were here to plan--"

"It is planned," Miko said shortly. "I give orders, I do not plan. I am
waiting now for the moment--"

* * * * *

He checked himself. Moa said, "Does Rankin understand that no harm is to
come to Gregg Haljan?"

"Yes," said Rankin. "And Dean. We need them, of course. But you cannot
make Dean send messages if he refuses, nor make Haljan navigate."

"I know enough to check on them," Miko said grimly. "They will not fool
me. And they will obey me, have no fear. A little touch of sulphuric--"
His laugh was gruesome. "It makes the most stubborn very willing."

"I wish," said Moa, "we had Haljan safely hidden. If he is hurt--killed--"

So that was why Miko had tried to capture me? To keep me safe so that I
might navigate the ship.

It occurred to me that I should get Carter at once. A plot to seize the
Planetara? But when?

I froze with startled horror.

The diaphragms at my ears rang with Miko's words: "I have set the time
for now! In two minutes--"

It seemed to startle both Rankin and George Prince almost as much as I.
Both exclaimed:

"No!"

"No? Why not? Everyone is at his post!"

Prince repeated: "No!"

And Rankin: "But can we trust them? The stewards--the crew?"

"Eight of them are our own men! You didn't know that, Rankin? They've
been aboard the Planetara for several voyages. Oh, this is no
quickly-planned affair, even though we let you in on it so recently. You
and Johnson. By God!"

* * * * *

I crouched tense. There was a commotion in the stateroom. Miko had
discovered that his insulation was cut off! He had evidently leaped to
his feet; I heard a chair overturn. And the Martian's roar: "It's off!
Did you do that, Prince? By God, if I thought--"

My apparatus went suddenly dead as Miko flung on his insulation. I lost
my wits in the confusion; I should have instantly taken off my
vibrations. There was interference; it showed in the dark space of the
ventilator grid over Miko's doorway; a snapping in the air there, a
swirl of sparks.

I heard with my unaided ears Miko's roar over his insulation: "By God,
they're listening!"

The scream of a hand-siren sounded from his stateroom. It rang over the
ship. His signal! I heard it answered from some distant point. And then
a shot;