ere was this! His
thoughts were written large on the ordinarily expressionless
countenance, and Blaine was tempted to laugh at his affrighted dismay.

"Come on, you bonehead," Tommy was saying in English. "Bring the big
bum inside. I'll carry the girl. Hurry; there'll be a million of them
in a minute."

The girl's huddled figure was raised by unseen hands. Poised in mid-air
for a moment, it floated joggily, unsteadily through the crack of the
partly opened stone door. The guard, wide-mouthed and staring, muttered
supplication to the war gods of Antrid.

* * * * *

Safely inside the secret chamber, the Earth men made haste to truss up
the guard and gag him. He was as tractable as a child under the
invisible fingers of Tom Farley, with eyes imploring the evil spirits
for mercy. And when Tommy's head appeared, drifting, unsupported by a
body; to be followed by arms and shoulders that seemed to materialize
from nothingness, the big fellow struggled panic-stricken in his bonds,
shaking with superstitious terror.

Blaine straightened the girl's limbs where she lay on a low couch. She
was breathing in low shuddering gasps, but a swift examination assured
him she had not been harmed. Her beautifully chiseled ivory features
were fixed in an expression of nameless dread. A mass of red-gold hair
tumbled in confusion about her face and shoulders and when the pilot
smoothed this back his heart did a most peculiar flip-flop. Sort of
jumped into his throat and stuck there. This Rulan maiden was a vision
of feminine loveliness if there ever was one; a dream.

Tommy watched him with a cynical smile, and said with mock contempt,
"So you're the guy who swore you'd never tangle up with a femme! Just a
month ago, too. Now look: first you get this Zara woman all het up over
you, and now this one's got you all het up over her. You make me sick!"

There was no fitting retort. Besides, this thing that had come to him
was too serious; too big. He couldn't kid about it--even with Tom. Why,
he'd always pictured this very girl in his thoughts; had always dreamed
of meeting her some day. And here she was: a living, breathing reality.
She was stirring, too, now; breathing easier. Her eyes opened wide;
frightened, innocent ones like a child's, blue-gray and fringed with
long lashes that raised dewy from the smooth ivory of her cheeks.

* * * * *

"Antius, my br