rger by far than the famed sapphires of Uranus.

"I brought him as soon as he awakened," said the woman with Ben.

A malevolent stare from the woman on the throne rested on Ben. "It was
unnecessary," she said. "We have no further need of him. Take him to the
field."

"Wait a minute," Ben snapped.

"You are addressing Arndis, Queen of Teris," he heard his escort say.

"I don't give a hoot . . ." He never finished the sentence. From behind the
hairy slave seized him, lifted him and flung him bodily toward the doors.
The interview was over.

They went for a while along the same corridor, then turned off and followed
a side passage for a way. It led steadily downward to an arched opening and
through that out of the building. Here too the light was diffused, but much
brighter. Ben had to blink several times before he became adjusted to it.

They were standing in the center of a vast level plain, apparently endless
and roofless, for overhead there was no sky, only an increasing intensity
of light. Ranged in rows on the plain were thousands of space ships. Ben
turned once as they approached the first line of ships and saw behind him
the building from which he had just come. It rose upward, a single block of
shining stone, for almost a mile. Alongside it were other buildings of the
same material, but none so large.

Then Ben and his two escorts were past the first rows of ships. His eyes
roved over them, trying to discover what armament they carried. None was
visible. Their firing tubes were much the same as those of Earth design,
but slightly smaller.

His attention was diverted from his study by a sudden disturbance aboard
the closest ship. The sound of an angry feminine voice came clearly through
an open porthole, and mingled with it was a pleading, deeper tone. An
instant later a door was flung open and out of it came hurtling one of the
men of Teris. He hit the ground, rolled over, and came to his knees facing
the open door and the giant woman who stood framed in it.

* * * * *

That the man was pleading for his very life was obvious to Ben, but it was
equally plain that his pleas were having no effect. The woman on the ship
uttered a single contemptuous word that cut the pleas short. On her face
was a sadistic anticipation such as Ben had never before seen. Slowly she
raised a cylinder in her hand and pointed it at the man on the ground.

From the cylinder came a violet light, we