ance over his shoulder. A good three miles
distant, bounding and leaping toward Singhalut, were twenty desperate
figures. They all wore space-suits. This man here ... A sjambak? A
wizard? A hallucination?

* * * * *

The creature rose to his feet, strode springily toward Murphy. He
carried a crossbow and a sword, like those of Murphy's fleet-footed
guards. But he wore no space-suit. Could there be breathable traces of
an atmosphere? Murphy glanced at his gauge. Outside pressure: zero.

Two other men appeared, moving with long elastic steps. Their eyes were
bright, their faces flushed. They came up to Murphy, took his arm. They
were solid, corporeal. They had no invisible force fields around their
heads.

Murphy jerked his arm free. "Let go of me, damn it!" But they certainly
couldn't hear him through the vacuum.

He glanced over his shoulder. The first man held his naked blade a foot
or two behind Murphy's bulging space-suit. Murphy made no further
resistance. He punched the button on his camera to automatic. It would
now run for several hours, recording one hundred pictures per second, a
thousand to the inch.

The sjambaks led Murphy two hundred yards to a metal door. They opened
it, pushed Murphy inside, banged it shut. Murphy felt the vibration
through his shoes, heard a gradually waxing hum. His gauge showed an
outside pressure of 5, 10, 12, 14, 14.5. An inner door opened. Hands
pulled Murphy in, unclamped his dome.

"Just what's going on here?" demanded Murphy angrily.

Prince Ali-Tomas pointed to a table. Murphy saw a flashlight battery,
aluminum foil, wire, a transistor kit, metal tubing, tools, a few other
odds and ends.

"There it is," said Prince Ali-Tomas. "Get to work. Let's see one of
these paralysis weapons you boast of."

"Just like that, eh?"

"Just like that."

"What do you want 'em for?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'd like to know." Murphy was conscious of his camera, recording sight,
sound, odor.

"I lead an army," said Ali-Tomas, "but they march without weapons. Give
me weapons! I will carry the word to Hadra, to New Batavia, to Sundaman,
to Boeng-Bohot!"

"How? Why?"

"It is enough that I will it. Again, I beg of you ..." He indicated the
table.

Murphy laughed. "I've got myself in a fine mess. Suppose I don't make
this weapon for you?"

"You'll remain until you do, under increasingly difficult conditions."

"I'll be here a long time."

"If suc