exclamation and sprang forward.

"Pete!"

Jim's voice recalled me to myself, and I watched the child laid with the
others with as disinterested an expression as I could muster. I had
never made a mistake in following Jim Carpenter's lead and I knew that
somewhere in his head a plan was maturing which might offer us some
chance of escape.

Our ship moved ahead down a long slant, gradually dropping nearer to the
ground. I watched the maneuver with interest while Jim, with his friend
the beetle commander, went over the ship. The insect was evidently
amused at Jim and was determined to find out the limits of his
intelligence, for he pointed out various controls and motors of the ship
and made elaborate sketches which Jim seemed to comprehend fairly well.

* * * * *

One of the beetles approached the control board and motioned me back. I
stepped away from the board; evidently a port in the side of the vessel
opened, for I felt a breath of air and could hear the hum of the city. I
walked to the side and glanced down, and found that we were floating
about twenty feet off the ground over a street on the edge of the city.
On the street a short distance ahead of us two children, evidently
returning from school, to judge by the books under their arms, were
walking unsuspectingly along. A turn of the dial sped up our motors, and
as the hum rang out in a louder key the children looked upward. Two of
the long flexible wires shot out and wrapped themselves about the
children; screaming, they were lifted into the space flyer. The port
through which they came in shut with a clang and the ship rose rapidly
into the air. The children were released from the wires which coiled
themselves up on deck and the beetle who had operated them stepped
forward and grasped the nearer of the children, a boy of about eleven,
by the arm. He raised the boy, who was paralyzed with terror, up toward
his head and gazed steadily into his eyes. Slowly the boy ceased
struggling and became white and rigid. The beetle laid him on the deck
and turned to the girl. Involuntarily I gave a shout and sprang forward,
but Jim grasped me by the arm.

"Keep quiet, you darned fool!" he cried. "We can do nothing now. Wait
for a chance!"

"We can't stand here and see murder done!" I protested.

"It's not murder. Pete, those children aren't being hurt. They are being
hypnotized so that they can be transported to Mercury."

"Why are the