s wretch! Would you let this man--"

"Comin'!" Sorko scrambling to his feet, shuffling to the table, where
he retrieved his bowl. Quirl and Lenore watched his painful progress
up the ladder, until at last he disappeared into the passage.

"Quirl," she murmured, as her hand sought his, "take this."

He felt a small bit of metal, and looking at it cautiously, saw that
he had a rough key, filed out of a piece of flat metal.

"The key to that hoop around your waist. He copied it from the one the
captain has, I suppose."

* * * * *

His hopes high all at once, Quirl sought the compact little lock in
the small of his back. It took a long time to get the key in, and then
it would not turn. It had been unskillfully made, and was probably not
a true reproduction. Nevertheless, by constant effort, he succeeded at
last in turning it, and was rewarded by hearing a faint click. He
tested the hoop, felt it slip, and knew that at any time he chose he
could free himself.

"Lenore, dear," he told her. "Go with the other women now. We must do
nothing to make the guard suspicious. We don't know when this mutiny
is to come off, but we are close to Saturn now; it can't be long. Go
now."

"Good-by, dear. Be careful!"

It seemed an eternity until the emanation disk became dim and went out
and the prisoners made sleepy sounds. A relief guard took station,
and the ship became silent, so that one could hear the rumbling of the
propelling rockets. As there were no ports in this hold, there was no
light whatever except the faint glow that came from the central
passage above the platform. Against this the pirate was outlined as he
sat on his stool. As Quirl's eyes became accustomed to the darkness he
could see the play of faint highlights on his muscular torso, and so
he waited.

He thought over the situation. The safest and easiest course would be
to create such a disturbance that Captain Strom would be attracted to
the scene. This would probably not involve anything more than a severe
beating for himself, and he would then find opportunity to acquaint
Strom with the projected mutiny somehow. That Strom would know how to
deal with it he never doubted. Lenore might then still be forcibly
impressed as a citizen of Strom's new planet, but at least she would
not be exposed to the infinitely worse fate of becoming the plaything
of Gore and his villainous crew.

* * * * *

The