hem that a slight, elderly-looking gentleman might
be hanging beneath the car, floating a few inches off the ground,
holding on with his fingertips, and allowing the car to pull him along
as it moved on into the Palace of the Great Chinese People's Government.

Getting into the subterranean cell where Dr. James Ch'ien was being held
was a different kind of problem. Candron knew the interior of the Palace
by map only, and the map he had studied had been admittedly inadequate.
It took him nearly an hour to get to the right place. Twice, he avoided
a patrolling guard by taking to the air and concealing himself in the
darkness of an overhead balcony. Several other times, he met men in
civilian clothing walking along the narrow walks, and he merely nodded
at them. He looked too old and too well-dressed to be dangerous.

The principle that made it easy was the fact that no one expects a lone
man to break into a heavily guarded prison.

After he had located the building where James Ch'ien was held, he went
high-flying. The building itself was one which contained the living
quarters of several high-ranking officers of the People's Government.
Candron knew he would be conspicuous if he tried to climb up the side of
the building from the outside, but he managed to get into the second
floor without being observed. Then he headed for the elevator shafts.

It took him several minutes to jimmy open the elevator door. His mind
was sensitive enough to sense the nearness of others, so there was no
chance of his being caught red-handed. When he got the door open, he
stepped into the shaft, brought his loathing for the bottom into the
fore, and floated up to the top floor. From there it was a simple matter
to get to the roof, drop down the side, and enter the open window of an
officer's apartment.

He entered a lighted window rather than a darkened one. He wanted to
know what he was getting into. He had his gun ready, just in case, but
there was no sign of anyone in the room he entered. A quick search
showed that the other two rooms were also empty. His mind had told him
that there was no one awake in the apartment, but a sleeping man's mind,
filled with dimmed, chaotic thoughts, blended into the background and
might easily be missed.

[Illustration]

Then Spencer Candron used the telephone, punching the first of the two
code numbers he had been given. A connection was made to the room where
a twenty-four-hour guard kept watch over