llings and with ill-gotten wealth untold, this
leader of the underworld openly boasted that the police had never
gotten anything on him. And they hadn't. So it was a criminal who had
laid hands on Shelton's robots, not a foreign spy. Worse and worse. He
thought of what they might be able to do with these invisible
mechanical things: make gunmen out of them; safe blowers; house
breakers. Why, society would be at their mercy; banks defenceless; the
mints, even--

"Stand up on your pins, you worm! Let's have a look at you!" The
muzzle of an automatic was thrust in his abdomen, prodding
insistently. Things stabilized in the room and he looked up into the
cruelest face he had ever seen, and recognizable from the many
pictures which had appeared in the yellow press.

Eddie took in the surroundings at a glance. He was in a low-ceilinged
room that was almost unfurnished. In one corner there was a replica of
Shelton's robot control, teleview disc and all. Carlos had just pulled
the switch and the robot was taking visible form. The man who prodded
him with the automatic was Cadorna, no doubt of that. His evil leer
and yellow eyes marked him at once. The other occupant of the room was
a big square-built man with a patch over one eye and strips of
adhesive tape across his nose--his antagonist of the night before.
Must have sneaked off after he came to; it was safer to send one of
the robots after the _verdammt Amerikaner_. Eddie restrained a chuckle
at the thought.

"Nothing to laugh at, kid!" Cadorna snarled. "You're goin' for a nice
long ride pretty quick. Know that?"

Eddie's head was clearing rapidly, but he pretended to sway on his
feet. Lina and her father were not in sight. If only he could spar for
a little time.

"What's the idea?" he asked. "Haven't you guys got enough?"

"That's our business. We know what we're doin', and when you butted in
you just signed your own papers. Dead men don't talk, you know, kid!"

* * * * *

There was a door at the other side of the room. If only he could see
whether Lina was in there; whether she was alive.

"Tie him up, Gus!" Cadorna kept the pistol pressed into the pit of
Eddie's stomach as he gave the order. "Hands and feet--and make it a
good job, you wiener."

Eddie shouted then. "Lina!" Resistance was useless, but it would give
him some satisfaction to know she still lived even though Cadorna
pulled that trigger in the next instant. No reply