k
toward the ship, the whole encircling force of Orconites began to move
silently forward. When we were within a few yards of the ship's ladder,
a tall lithely built Orconite who seemed to be captain of the guard,
flopped his wings, shot across the cavern, and dropped down before us.
Into the instrument on his chest he rapped a word of Orconese which was
translated instantly into the German.

"_Verboten!_" was the word.

Forbidden! The Orconites were not taking any chances with us. It was
discouraging, but no more than I had expected. It simply meant that if
we were to be interfered with, we should have to do something about the
interference.

I quickly began to work out a plan.

First of all I shrugged at the captain of the guard and turned back from
the ship as though his refusal to let us aboard was of no consequence.
Next I spoke to the others.

"Come on," I said in a normal voice. "Don't make a fuss now, but pull
back, from the gangway."

They saw, I think, that I was planning something, and we retreated
together, with the result that the Orconites ceased to threaten and once
more fell back to the walls of the cavern. Their captain flew over and
joined them.

* * * * *

"I thought for a moment," I said, "that we might tell the captain that
Hargrib was locked up in the ship, and so furnish an excuse to get
aboard. But that isn't good. Some of the Orconites would surely go with
us, and in that case it would be next to impossible to get at the
kotomite properly. What we need is at least a couple of minutes which
will be uninterrupted. We'll leave Hargrib right where he is, and get
access to the ship in another way. We'll fight for it!"

"Fight?" Captain Crane shot a glance at me, and I saw that the idea
appealed to her.

"So far as I can see," I said quickly, "Leider hasn't armed his guards
with any unique weapon, but has merely left them to watch us. And the
Orconites don't know how to fight! Think of the ease with which I got
away with Hargrib last night. When it comes to dealing destruction with
scientific weapons, their power is appalling. When it comes to a
slugging match, they are only so many sheep. And Leider's forgotten to
take that fact into account!"

I felt really sure that the guards were not armed with some mysterious
weapon we could not see, and Koto felt the same.

"Doctor, you're right!" he exclaimed. "Leider's made a mistake! He's
forgotten