with terrific force. The projector flew into the air,
shattered and useless, while the hexan was knocked into a corner by the
momentum of the massive projectile and lay there, stunned and broken.
Brandon, likewise reacting instantaneously, had bent over and seized
a leg of the table, bracing his knee against the corner. With a mighty
lunge of his powerful body he wrenched out the support and with a
continuation of the same motion, he brought the jagged oak head of his
terrible club down full upon the crown of the second hexan, who had
already torn one guard apart and was leaping toward Czuv, his hereditary
foe. In midflight he was dashed to the floor, his head a shapeless,
pulpy mass, and Brandon, bludgeon again aloft, strode deeper into the
fray. For a brief moment searing lethal beams probed here and there,
chains clanked and snapped, once more that ponderous and irresistible
oaken mace fell like the hammer of Thor, again spattering brains and
blood abroad as it descended--then again came silence. The six erstwhile
prisoners lay dead, but they had taken five of the guards with
them--literally dismembered, hideously torn limb from limb by the
superhuman, incredible physical strength and utter ferocity of the
hexans.

By common consent the meeting was adjourned to another room, for the
business in hand could not be postponed.

"Captain Czuv was right--we Tellurians could not believe in the
existence of such a race without the evidence of our own senses." Newton
reopened the meeting. "From this time on we take no prisoners. Doctor
Brandon, you may resume."

"The detectors and lookouts will give ample warning of any attack, and
Doctor Westfall has suggested that we should have all possible facts
at hand before we try to decide upon a course of action. We should like
to hear the full reports of Captain King, Captain Czuv, Chief Pilot
Breckenridge, and Doctor Stevens."

The four men told their stories tersely and rapidly, while the others
listened in deep attention. As the last speaker sat down, Newton again
turned to Brandon, who silently jerked his head at Westfall, knowing his
own inadequacy in such a situation--realizing that here was needed
Westfall's cold and methodical thinking.

"Director Newton and gentlemen," Westfall spoke calmly and precisely.
"We have much to do before we can meet the hexans upon equal terms.
We have many new fields of force and rays to develop, of whose nature
and necessity Doctor Brand