die in peace? He knew he was on his feet, swaying. There were voices,
strident and guttural, and then by some magic the veil was lifted. His
brain cleared and he saw that he stood before a dais where a much
bejeweled and resplendently clad woman sat curled in the luxurious
cushions of a golden seat. Chalk-white was her face and her lips
crimson; amazing eyes, cat's eyes, pupils red-flecked and glittering,
stared out at him.

* * * * *

"The Zara," Antazzo whispered. "You will make obeisance."

Mechanically, Blaine dropped to his knees and touched his forehead to
the floor. Tom Farley, over there, was doing the same, but Antazzo
stood erect with arms crossed over his chest and head thrown back. The
eyes of the Zara swept him contemptuously from head to foot. All was
not well between them.

Blaine arose from his humiliating position at a sharp command from the
hunchback. Tommy did likewise and the two exchanged sheepish looks. The
effects of the pink gas were wearing off once more. They were in a
large hall, obviously the throne room of a palace. Men-at-arms lined
the walls on either side of the dais, and these were straight limbed
giants with green-bronze skin and regular features--not at all like the
deformed Ionian who had captured them and stolen the RX8.

The Zara talked rapidly in throaty gutturals, her fierce gaze directed
at Antazzo and her brows drawn together in a scowl that could have but
one meaning. She was displeased with the hunchback, displeased and
furiously angry. What was it all about? Hadn't he brought home the
bacon--the k-metal they were after? Blaine was nonplused.

Then Antazzo replied to the woman who was obviously his queen. His
voice rose in shrill disagreement and his scowl was as fierce as the
Zara's. Threatening her, he was, the nervy devil. He clenched his fists
and raised his arms in an angry gesture, pacing the floor in his fury
and thrusting out a pugnacious chin while he raved. This Zara woman
rose higher in her cushions, and the look that flashed from those
terrible eyes would have warned a less excited human, however
justifiable his anger might be. But Antazzo was in too deep to draw
back, that was plain to be seen. Blaine held his breath in anticipation
of an explosion.

* * * * *

It came then, that explosion, and in a way entirely unexpected and
horrible to behold. The tiger woman uttered one