. The only model, and Dr. Brende's
notes were in his hands. Washington had ordered him to give them up, and
he had refused. But now the status was changed. Georg held the secret
also--and Georg was in Washington. It left the Earth Council free to
deal with Tarrano.

During those days Georg was housed in official apartments, with Maida
very often near him. Inactive, they were much together, discussing their
respective worlds. The Princess Maida was hereditary ruler of the Venus
Central State--the only living heir to the throne. When Tarrano's forces
threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by
spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the
tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had
been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to
Tarrano.

In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by
a Council. The public loved her--but a majority of it had gone astray
when she disappeared--lured by Tarrano's glowing promises.

Maida told Georg all this with a sweet, gentle sadness that was
pathetic. And with an earnest, patriotic fervor--the love of her country
and her people for whom she would give her life.

She added: "If only I could get back there, Georg--I could make them
realize the right course. I could win them again. Tarrano will play them
false--_you_ know it, and so do I."

Pathetic earnestness in this girl still no more than seventeen! And
Georg, sitting beside her, gazing into her solemn, beautiful face, felt
that indeed she could win them, with those limpid blue eyes and her
words which rang with sincerity and truth.

They sat generally in an unofficial instrument room adjoining the
government offices. A room high in a spire above the upper levels of the
city. And around them rolled the momentous events of which they were the
center.

The time limit of the Earth Council's ultimatum to Tarrano expired.
Already Tarrano had answered it with defiance. But on the stroke of its
expiration, came another note from him. Georg read it from the tape to
Maida:

_"To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject----"_

A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not
see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand
that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he
did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to
r