ash and Gaunt?"

"Getting it now," one of them replied. "Give us two minutes more."

"Keep at it then," I said. "We'll guard."

The soft, gliding sound ceased.

"I think it's very close to me," Wilma almost whispered. "Come closer,
Tony. I have a feeling something is going to happen. I've never known my
nerves to get taut like this without reason."

In some alarm, I launched myself down the corridor in a great leap
toward the intersection whence I knew I could see her.

In the middle of my leap my ultrophone registered her gasp of alarm. The
next instant I glided to a stop at the intersection to see Wilma backing
toward the door of the military office, her sword red with blood, and an
inert form on the corridor floor. Two other Hans were circling to either
side of her with wicked-looking knives, while a third evidently a high
officer, judging by the resplendence of his garb tugged desperately to
get an electrophone instrument out of a bulky pocket. If he ever gave
the alarm, there was no telling what might happen to us.

I was at least seventy feet away, but I crouched low and sprang with
every bit of strength in my legs. It would be more correct to say that I
dived, for I reached the fellow head on, with no attempt to draw my legs
beneath me.

Some instinct must have warned him, for he turned suddenly as I hurtled
close to him. But by this time I had sunk close to the floor, and had
stiffened myself rigidly, lest a dragging knee or foot might just
prevent my reaching him. I brought my blade upward and over. It was a
vicious slash that laid him open, bisecting him from groin to chin, and
his dead body toppled down on me, as I slid to a tangled stop.

The other two startled, turned. Wilma leaped at one and struck him down
with a side slash. I looked up at this instant, and the dazed fear on
his face at the length of her leap registered vividly. The Hans knew
nothing of our inertron belts, it seemed, and these leaps and dives of
ours filled them with terror.

As I rose to my feet, a gory mess, Wilma, with a poise and speed which I
found time to admire even in this crisis, again leaped. This time she
dove head first as I had done and, with a beautifully executed thrust,
ran the last Han through the throat.

Uncertainly, she scrambled to her feet, staggered queerly, and then sank
gently prone on the corridor. She had fainted.

At this juncture, Blash and Gaunt reported with elation that they had
the record we