r," said Sadau, "do as Miss Pemberton tells you. Leave here."

"And if I don't?" temporized Parr, who felt the eagerness of his
beast-men for some sort of a skirmish.

Varina Pemberton took something from her belt and pointed it. A brittle
report resounded--_whick_! And an electro-automatic pellet exploded
almost between Parr's feet, digging a hole in the rock. He jumped back.
So did his three comrades, from whose memories had not faded the
knowledge of firearms.

"The next shot," she warned, "will be a little higher and more carefully
placed. Get out, and don't come back."

"They win," said Parr. "Come on, boys."

They retired to the upper combing of rock, with the sun at their backs.
There Parr motioned them into hiding behind jagged boulders. Time
passed, several hours of it. Finally they saw Sadau and Varina Pemberton
depart on the other side of the hole.

"Good," rumbled Ling. "We follow. Sneak up. Grab. Kill."

"Not us," Parr ruled. "No war against women, Ling. But we'll go down
where they were working, and see what it's all about."

They groped their way down again. At the bottom of the pit-valley they
found the metal projection, so like a mighty steering wheel. Sadau's
torch lay there, extinguished, and Parr still carried a radium lighter
in the pocket of his shabby shorts. He made a light, and looked.

The big panel or rock, that had been half-open, was closed. As for the
wheel, it had been bent and jammed, by powerful blows with a rock. He
could not budge it, nor could the mighty Ling, nor could all of them
together.

"They were inside this asteroid," decided Parr, half to himself. "Down
where the Martians planted the artificial gravity-machinery. Having been
there, they fixed things so nobody will follow them. Only blasting rays
could open up a way, and those would probably wreck the mechanism and
send air, water and exiles all flying into space. All this she did.
Why?"

"Why what?" asked Izak, not comprehending.

"Yes, why what?" repeated Parr. "I can only guess, Izak, and none of my
guesses have been worth much lately. Let's go home, and keep an eye
peeled on our neighbors."

* * * * *

The Martians had come again--the same space-patroller, repaired, and
twice as many hands and a new skipper. They carried no Terrestrial
exile--for once their errand was different.

Four of them, harnessed into erect human posture, armed and armored,
stood around the evening f