slowly opening door. He pulled the trigger. Yells followed its
humming, because not everybody it hit was knocked out. Nor did it hit
everybody in the corridor. Men came surging out of one door, and then
two, to require the attention of his weapons.

Then a spear went past Hoddan's face and missed him only by inches. It
buried its point in the floor. A whirling knife spun past his nose. He
glanced up. There were balconies all around the great hall, and men
popped up from behind the railings and threw things at him. They popped
down out of sight instantly. There was no rhythm involved. He could not
anticipate their rising, nor shoot them through the balcony front. And
more men infiltrated the hall, getting behind heavy chairs and tables,
to push toward him behind them as shovable shields. More spears and
knives flew.

* * * * *

"Bron!" cried the Lady Fani, throatily.

He thought she had an exit for him. He sprang to her side.

"I ... I didn't want you to come," she wept.

There was a singular pause in the clangings and clashings of weapons on
the floor. For a second the noises continued. Then they stopped. Then
one man popped up and hurled a knife. The clang of its fall was a very
lonely one. Don Loris fairly howled at him.

"Idiot! Think of the Lady Fani!"

The Lady Fani suddenly smiled tremulously.

"Wonderful!" she said. "They don't dare do anything while you're as
close to me as this!"

"Do you suppose," asked Hoddan, "I could count on that?"

"I'm certain of it!" said Fani. "And I think you'd better."

"Then, excuse me," said Hoddan with great politeness.

He swung her up and over his shoulder. With a stun-pistol in his free
hand he headed down the hall.

"Outside," she said zestfully. "Get out the side door and turn left, and
nobody can jump down on your neck. Then left again to the gate."

He obeyed. Now and again he got in a pot-shot with his pistol. Don Loris
had turned the castle into a very pretty trap. The Lady Fani said
plaintively:

"This is terribly undignified, and I can't see where we're going. Where
are we now?"

"Almost at the gate," panted Hoddan. "At it, now." He swung out of the
massive entrance to Don Loris' stronghold. "I can put you down now."

"I wouldn't," said the Lady Fani. "In spite of the end of me that's
uppermost, I think you'd better make for the spaceboat exactly as we
are."

Again Hoddan obeyed, racing across the open ground. Howls