, he has more power than he ever had
during the Calypsus war."

* * * * *

I said nothing, but simply looked at LeConte, and nodded approval when
he muttered something about getting his sending set in shape, if that
were possible. We were sitting in the small cabin and Captain Crane was
searching my face with those discomforting, violet-lighted gray eyes. I
knew she was asking me once more what I was going to do, and I knew
that, except that we might fire the kotomite, I could tell her nothing.

We sat on in silence. Then, however, before I spoke about the kotomite,
a change came.

All at once I felt the space flier tremble under me. It rocked gently
over on one side and began to move. Slowly, but definitely.

Koto and I were on our feet in a flash. Captain Crane stiffened and
faced me, waiting.

"What is it?" Koto gasped.

"We'll find out what it is," I flung back. "Miss Crane--Captain--on deck
with you. Here, Koto, a hand with one of the guns. We'll take it up out
of the hatchway and through the main cabin."

LeConte, I knew, was the one we must be careful of, with his cracked
ribs.

"Get to your apparatus," I ordered him, "and stay with it until you get
through to Earth."

With that I jumped into the main cabin, stepped over Forbes' lifeless
body, and caught hold of the nearest of the atomic guns. I was to be a
leader, after all.

CHAPTER II

_The Cable of Menace_

It was dark when we gained the deck; as dark as it had been when I first
regained consciousness. Captain Crane was attending to that problem,
however. As Koto and I floundered with the gun on the slippery
telargeium plates of the outer hull, I heard her moving about. Then she
uttered a cry of relief, and there came a faint click. Instantly the
darkness all about--the clinging noisome darkness of Orcon at night--was
shattered.

The blessed rays of our one good lighting dynamo were loosed!

I saw the girl standing braced beside a stanchion, staring over the
ship's side.

"Come on, Koto!" I snapped.

I am no fighting man by trade. Nevertheless, there was a kind of
instinct which told me to get the gun set up at any point of vantage
along the ship's side. And Koto understood.

"There," he breathed after but a few seconds, and from the experienced
way in which he touched the disintegration-release trigger with his one
good hand, I knew we were ready.

The flier was still moving, slowl