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* * * * * There was a flash of color that swept by the open port--some flying creature of vivid crimson: Chet had no time to see what manner of bird or beast it was. But it was alive! He crossed to examine the spectro-analyzer, and the two men disregarded his order and slipped into the rear cabin. "Seems all clear to me, Walt," he said; and Harkness confirmed his findings with a quick glance. "O.K.!" he assured Chet; "that air is all right to breathe." He glanced from a lookout port. "The air's moving now," he said. "That gas--whatever it was--is gone; it must have settled down here in the night. Some new vent that has opened since we were here before. "But suppose we forget that and settle matters in here," he suggested; and Chet nodded assent. "Call your men!" Harkness ordered Schwartzmann. The man had recovered his composure; again his heavy face was flushed beneath a stubble of beard. He made no move to comply with Harkness' demand. But there was no need: from the cabin at the rear came the scientist, Kreiss. His face was pale and drawn, and he stared long and searchingly at Chet Bullard. His breath still whistled in his throat; the poison gas had nearly done for him. At his heels were the two who had been working at the port. Two others, who had held Harkness, were drawn off at one side, where they mumbled one to another and shot ugly glances toward Chet. This, Chet knew, accounted for all. Even the pilot, Max, had roused from the sleep that a blow on the chin had induced and was again on his feet. For him no explanation was needed; the shattered cage of the ball-control told its own story. Harkness seated Mademoiselle Delacouer on a bench at the pilot's post. "You will want to be in on this," he told her, "but I'll put you here in case they get rough. But don't worry," he added; "we'll be ready for them now." * * * * * Then he turned to Schwartzmann: "Now, you! Oh, there are plenty of things I could call you! And you would understand them perfectly, though they are all words that no gentleman would use." At Schwartzmann's outburst of profane rejoinder, Harkness broke in with no uncertain tones. "Shut up, Schwartzmann, and stay that way; I'm giving the orders now. And we'll just cut out all the pleasantries; they won't get us anywhere. We must face the situation, all of us; see what we're up against and make some plans."
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