attered before him. Their punishment could wait. Just
inside the princess's chamber, still unconscious from a blow on the
head, lay the guard whose duty it had been to stand before that door.
How long ago had she gone? Probably not more than a few minutes.

Joro saw to it that her start would not be much longer. In a few
seconds men and women were scouring the palace grounds, and radio
orders to the provincial police of Hanlon were crowding the ether.

* * * * *

Sira had contrived her escape without any particular plan in mind. In
fact, it had been initiated on impulse. The fellow on guard at her
door had excited intense dislike in her. High-strung, and excited by
her kidnaping, she had been further annoyed by his officiousness, his
fawning, which thinly disguised impudence. The third or fourth time
that he intruded on her privacy to ask if she wanted anything she was
ready, with the heavy leg, unscrewed from a chair. She felled him in
the middle of a smirk, and seized the opportunity created.

It happened that there was a service corridor close at hand. Down this
she sped, into the darkness of a boat-house. The doors were barred and
locked, of course, but the depths of the water showed a faint greenish
glimmer of light. Sira dived in, unhesitatingly, and after an easy
underwater swim she emerged in the open canal. There was a
considerable swell, for there was a slight breeze blowing from the
north across twenty miles of water, but this did not distress Sira at
all. She undulated through the waves with perfect comfort. Phobos was
just rising in the west, and orientating herself by this tiny moon she
struck out in a north-easterly direction, seeking a favorable current
to carry her toward Tarog.

Early explorers on Mars were astonished to find that the canals were
not stagnant bodies of water, but possessed currents, induced by wind,
by evaporation, and the influx of fresh water from the polar ice caps.

This was near the equator, however, and the water was not unreasonably
cold, although the night air was, as usual, chilly. After a few
minutes Sira discarded her clothing, and so settled down to a long
swim.

* * * * *

Ten miles out she struck a brisk easterly current, flowing toward
Tarog, and she gave herself up to it. Floating on her back she saw the
lights of the prince's ships flying back and forth over the water in
search of her--or her body.