es, and he knew that she was trying to read his face. She
knew, wise Jaska, that this brilliant lover of hers was making a plan,
and she believed in the sure success of it because it would be _his_!

She smiled at him, her courage high, and waited!

Holding the ray director between his body and that of Jaska, he took a
terrible, ghastly chance. Dalis had known the secret sign manual of
these two; but would the intelligence of the cubes comprehend it? He
must take the chance, slender as it seemed. His free hand began to
spell out, with all speed, the mad plan he had conceived.

"The white flames are harmless if one plunges into them voluntarily.
Are you afraid to attempt it? No? Then unfasten your clothing, and
have it so arranged that you can drop entirely out of it when I give
you the signal, which will be a mere widening of the eyes, like this!
You understand? We must go nude into the flames, so that they will
bathe our whole bodies! But, when you slip out of your clothing, tear
your anti-gravitational ovoid from the skull-pan of your helmet, and
hold it in your mouth! Then depend upon me, and have no fear!"

"I have no fear," replied the fingers of Jaska. "I go to death with
you if you wish--or to Life!"

* * * * *

Feeling the menace of the cubes almost gripping at his throat as he
got into action, Sarka unfastened his own clothing, ripped the ovoid
from his helmet, placed it in his mouth. Then, looking at Jaska, he
gave her the signal.

Instantly, at her nod, he brought forth the ray director, pressed it
with his fingers, directing its muzzle toward the curve of the globe,
swinging it around in a circle, cutting out the bottom of the globe of
cubes.

The action must have been one of untold surprise to the cubes which
made up the globe, for before anything could be done to stay the hand
of Sarka, his ray director had cut out the bottom of the globe, and
Jaska and himself, divested now of all clothing, had fallen from the
globe.

Unbearable heat slashed and tore at them. They still held hands, and
when their feet touched upon something solid, they were gasping with
the unbelievable heat; and it was ripping at their lungs like talons
of white hot steel. But, pausing not at all, Sarka raced ahead with
Jaska, and dived straight into the lake of white flames.

As he dived he directed his thoughts toward the people of the Gens who
stood, undecided, dying by slow inches, on their