t handle. Then he was
unwinding the coil as he tried the door of the chamber next to the one
where the fire burned, found it open, darted across the room and
softly raised the sash. The sill here, like the one beneath which
Naomi lay, was a bare two feet above the ground.

He was out on the ledge, sliding along it toward the fire-reddened
oblong five feet away. He crammed his body close against the wall,
kept his eyes away from the unfenced edge of that eighteen-inch shelf.
Beyond, an abyss waited, twelve thousand feet of nothingness down
which a single misstep, an instant's vertigo, would send him hurtling.
Suddenly the rattle of sticks stopped, and he heard the black's long
howl of disappointed rage. The game was over!

Allan reached the window, glimpsed a leering semicircle of animal
faces, saw Jung Sin coming toward him. Then he had swung in.

"Back, Jung Sin! Back!" Allan was straddled over Naomi's form, the
ray-gun thrust out before his tense threat, his face livid, his eyes
blazing. "Get back, or I ray you!"

* * * * *

Consternation, awe, flashed into the brutal faces of the Easterners.
Jung Sin reeled back, his saffron hands rising. Allan's weapon swept
slowly along the line of staring men. "If one of you moves I flash."

He bent to the girl, keeping his eyes on the Easterners, and his
weapon steady. He had hung the wire coil over his shoulder, leaving
his left hand free to fumble for and untie the cords around Naomi's
wrists. He got them loose.

"Can you get your feet free, Naomi?"

"Yes, I can manage it." Her voice was steady, but there was a great
thankfulness vibrant in it.

"Then do it and get out on the ledge. Quick." He straightened, and the
blaze of his eyes held the yellow men, and the black, motionless.

Naomi, at the window behind him, gasped. "I know it looks tough," he
encouraged her, "but you can make it. Don't look down. Go to the left.
_And keep clear of that wire._"

"I'm all right, Allan. But you--"

"Never mind about me. Go ahead."

Jung Sin jerked forward, driven by the madness that twisted his face
into gargoyle hideousness. But Allan's ray-gun stabbed at him, and he
halted.

"I'm out, Allan."

Dane's foot felt back of him for the sill, found it. He lifted, facing
his enemies inexorably, caught the lintel with his left hand, and was
crouching outside. A sidewise flick of his eyes showed Naomi just
reaching the other window.

He pulled at