."

"What makes you think that?" he demanded sharply.

"You told me so yourself, indirectly. Who else in the known Universe
could possibly call him 'Sammy'? You are hard, of course, but you must
be so--and I never did like soft men, anyway. And you brawl in a good
cause. You are very much a _man_, my Conway; a real, _real_ man, and I
love you! Now, if they catch us, all right--we'll die together, at
least!" she finished, passionately.

"You're right, sweetheart, of course," he admitted. "I don't believe
that I _could_ really let you let me go, even though I know you ought
to," and their hands locked together even more firmly than before. "If
we ever get out of this jam I'm going to kiss you, but this is no time
to be taking off your helmet. In fact, I'm taking too many chances with
you in keeping your finger shields off. Snap 'em on, Clio mine; the
pirates ought to be getting fairly close by this time."

Hands released and armor again tight, Costigan went over to join Bradley
at the control board.

"How're they coming, Captain?" he asked.

"Not so good. Quite a ways off yet. At least an hour, I'd say, before a
cruiser can get within range."

"I'll see if I can locate any of the pirates chasing up. If I do, it'll
be by accident; this little spy-ray isn't good for much except close
work. I'm afraid the first warning we'll have will be when they take
hold of us with a beam or spear us with a ray. Probably a beam, though;
this is one of their emergency lifeboats and they wouldn't want to
destroy it unless they have to. Also, I imagine that Roger wants us
alive pretty badly. He has unfinished business with all three of us, and
I can well believe that his 'not particularly pleasant extinction' will
be even less so after the way we rooked him."

"I want you to do me a favor, Conway." Clio's face was white with horror
at the thought of facing again that unspeakable creature of gray. "Give
me a gun or something, please. I don't want him to touch me again while
I'm alive."

"He won't," Costigan assured her, narrow of eye and grim of jaw. He was,
as she had said, hard. "But you don't want a gun. You might get nervous
and use it too soon. I'll take care of you at the last possible moment,
because if he gets hold of us we won't stand a chance of getting away
again."

For minutes there was silence, Costigan surveying the ether in all
directions with his ultra-wave device. Suddenly he laughed, deeply and
with real enjoyme