he hostile lights had appeared. Previously, I knew, he had been
watching those lights, with the curved ray of the instrument when the
lights themselves had been below the horizon.

He turned now to me. "They are here, Jac Hallen. Almost here. And I am
at their mercy." His tone was ironic; then it hardened into grimness. He
was addressing me, but I knew it was for Elza's benefit he spoke.

"I came here to Earth, Jac Hallen, for certain things. I find them now
accomplished. I belong here no longer." He laughed. "I would not force
myself into a war prematurely. That would be very unwise. I think--we
shall have to avoid this--engagement. I am--slightly outnumbered."

He called an order, quite calmly over his shoulder. I suppose, at that
moment, the Earth war vessels were no more than five miles away. The
whole sky was a kaleidoscope of darting lights. In answer to his order,
from the peak of our tower a light bomb mounted--a vertical ray of green
light. The bomb of surrender!

Tarrano chuckled. "That should halt them. Come! We must start."

He held a brief colloquy with a Venus man who appeared beside him. The
man nodded and hastened back into the instrument room. The green light
of our bomb had died away. The lights in the sky began fading--the whole
sky fading, turning to blackness! I became aware that Tarrano had thrown
around our tower a temporary isolation barrage. For a few moments--while
the current he had at his command could hold it--we could not be seen on
the image finders of the advancing vessels.

Tarrano repeated: "That should hold them--I have surrendered! They
should be triumphant. And outside our barrage, our men will bargain with
them. Ten minutes! We should be able to hold them off that long at
least. Come, Lady Elza. We must start now."

With a scant ceremony in sharp contrast to his courteous words to Elza,
he hurried us off. Three of us--Elza, Wolfgar and myself, with one
attendant who still carried Elza's personal belongings. Hurried us into
the vertical car which had brought us up into the tower. It descended
now, down the iron skeleton shaft. Outside the girders I could see only
the blackness of the barrage, with faint snapping sparks.

Silently we descended. It seemed very far down. And suddenly I realized
that we were going lower than the ground level. The barrage sparks had
vanished. The blackness now was a normal darkness; and in it I could see
slipping upward the smooth black sides of th