d. "If you were what you claim to
be perhaps I would let you go for the ransom, though you took my eye
from the first."

"The ransom will be paid."

"It will not. You will be one of those who do not return. There is
only one price I will accept from you."

"Yes? What is that?"

"The formula of the new etheric ray."

"I don't know the I.F.P. secrets. I told you that."

"You know how to operate the ray. All its men do. I want you to tell
me what you know. I can deduce the rest."

* * * * *

Quirl thought rapidly. Strom was right. The I.F.P. had developed a new
ray that was far superior to the ionizer ray, for the latter required
an atmosphere of some kind for its operation, while the new one would
work equally well in a vacuum.

"I never heard of any," he lied stubbornly. "Anyway, what do you want
a ray for? Your guns, with no gravity to interfere and no air to stop
the bullets, have just about unlimited range, haven't they?"

"Spoken like a soldier!" Again Strom permitted himself a brief
triumphant smile. "And we have the further advantage of invisibility.
The ship is surrounded by a net of wires that create a field of force
which bend light rays around us. That explains why your men have never
caught us. But to get back to our subject. I will tell you something.
Do you know who I am?"

Quirl looked at him. Strom appeared to be at least sixty years old.
But the fine, erect figure, the rugged features told nothing.

"Did you ever hear of Lieutenant Burroughs?" Strom asked casually.

"Burroughs--the man without a planet!" Quirl ejaculated. "Are you
Burroughs, the traitor?" Immediately he regretted his heedlessness.
Strom's face darkened in anger, and for a moment the pirate captain
did not reply. When he did he was a little calmer.

"Traitor they called me!" he exclaimed vehemently. "I a traitor--the
most loyal man in the solar system guard. Surrounded by rottenness and
intrigue--

"But you wouldn't know. You were but a lad learning to fly your first
toy helics when that happened. Years later the Martian Cabal was
exposed, and the leading plotters--the traitors--were punished. But
that was not till later, and the court's irreversible decree against
me had been carried out. I, the unsuspecting messenger, the loyal,
eager dupe, was made the cat's-paw. I was put on an old, condemned
freighter, with food and supplies supposed to last me a lifetime, but
with no power capsules a