n fail to understand one
another. He is good--so good! But you--you, too, are good, and you
fear for the safety of your own people."

"They will be killed to the last woman and child," he replied, "or
they will be captured, which will be worse."

"I understand," she told him, and pressed his hand; "and if I can
help, Lieutenant Mack Guire, I shall be so glad."

He smiled at her stilted pronunciation of his name. He had had the
girl for an almost constant companion since his arrival; the sexes, he
found, were on a level of mutual freedom, and the girl's companionship
was offered and her friendship expressed as openly as might have been
that of a youth. Of Sykes he saw little; Professor Sykes was deep in
astronomical discussions with the scientists of this world.

But she was charming, this girl of a strange race so like his own. A
skin from the velvet heart of a rose and eyes that looked deep into
his and into his mind when he permitted; eyes, too, that could crinkle
to ready laughter or grow misty when she sang those weird melodies of
such thrilling sweetness.

Only for the remembrance of Earth and the horrible feeling of impotent
fury, Lieutenant McGuire would have found much to occupy his thoughts
in this loveliest of companions.

* * * * *

He laughed now at the sounding of his name, and the girl laughed with
him.

"But it _is_ your name, is it not?" she asked.

"Lieutenant Thomas McGuire," he repeated, "and those who like me call
me 'Mac.'"

"Mac," she repeated. "But that is so short and hard sounding. And what
do those who love you say?"

The flyer grinned cheerfully. "There aren't many who could qualify in
that respect, but if there were they would call me Tommy."

"That is better," said Althora with engaging directness; "that is much
better--Tommy." Then she sprang to her feet and hurried him out where
some further wonders must be seen and exclaimed over without delay.
But Lieutenant McGuire saw the pink flush that crept into her face,
and his own heart responded to the telltale betrayal of her feeling
for him. For never in his young and eventful life had the man found
anyone who seemed so entirely one with himself as did this lovely girl
from a distant star.

He followed where she went dancing on her way, but not for long could
his mind be led away from the menace he could not forget. And on this
day, as on many days to come, he struggled and racked his brain to
f