d Grantline,
memory of that brigand ship coming from Mars had never once occurred to
Snap or me!

I told Grantline now. His eyes through the visor stared at me blankly.

"What!"

I told him again. It would be here in eight days. Fully manned and
armed.

"But Haljan, we have almost no weapons! All my _Comet's_ space was taken
with mining equipment and the mechanisms for my camp. I can't signal
Earth! I was depending on the _Planetara_!"

It surged upon us. The brigand menace past? We were blindly
congratulating ourselves on our safety! But it would be eight days or
more before in distant Ferrok-Shahn the non-arrival of the _Planetara_
would cause any real comment. No one was searching for us--no one was
worried over us.

No wonder the crafty Miko was willing to take his chances out here in
the Lunar wilds! His ship, his reinforcements, his weapons were coming
rapidly!

And we were helpless. Almost unarmed. Marooned here on the Moon with our
treasure!

(_To be continued._)

+-------------------------------------+
| ASTOUNDING STORIES |
| _Appears on Newsstands_ |
| THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH. |
+-------------------------------------+

The Soul-Snatcher

_By Tom Curry_

[Illustration: _He began to twist and turn, as though torn by some
invisible force._]

From twenty miles away stabbed the "atom-filtering" rays to Allen
Baker in his cell in the death house.

The shrill voice of a woman stabbed the steady hum of the many machines
in the great, semi-darkened laboratory. It was the onslaught of weak
femininity against the ebony shadow of Jared, the silent negro servant
of Professor Ramsey Burr. Not many people were able to get to the famous
man against his wishes; Jared obeyed orders implicitly and was generally
an efficient barrier.

"I will see him, I will," screamed the middle-aged woman. "I'm Mrs. Mary
Baker, and he--he--it's his fault my son is going to die. His fault.
_Professor! Professor Burr!_"

Jared was unable to keep her quiet.

Coming in from the sunlight, her eyes were not yet accustomed to the
strange, subdued haze of the laboratory, an immense chamber crammed full
of equipment, the vista of which seemed like an apartment in hell.
Bizarre shapes stood out from the mass of impedimenta, great stills
which rose full two stories in height, dynamos, immense tubes of