make a bandage; we've
nothing clean enough."

That was all he said; and Jim, his heart beating like mad, and a lump
in his throat, could find no words at all. He sterilized the tip of
the file as directed, studied the lump a moment, then, after a rough,
affectionate shake of his friend's shoulder, he knelt close to his
task. One quick hard cut; a sharp gasp from Clee; a repetition; then
two more times crossways--and a firm, spongelike metallic disc lay
revealed. Then the worst--raising it a little, and breaking the
several fine wires that led from it through the flesh within....

Clee lay panting, the sweat running down the deep wrinkles of pain on
his face. Dark blood oozed from the jagged wound. But he smiled a
little, and some of the pain-wrinkles in his face smoothed away, when
Jim showed him the disk....

For a short time Clee rested, quieting his nerves, while Jim staunched
the flow of blood.

And then it was Jim's turn; and he bore the sharp agony as stoically
as Clee....

It was perhaps a strange thing; but at this great moment in the lives
of the two men they felt no need to talk. For the few minutes they
rested after they had done, no word was spoken; but in that time a
bond of friendship was formed that only death could ever break....

* * * * *

They did not rest long. Every moment brought them nearer to the
inevitable discovery of what they had done. Their muscles were still
quivering, the wounds on their necks still slowly bleeding, when Clee
rose and aroused Jim. The most dangerous, desperate part of their wild
revolt lay just ahead.

They were able to make but the vaguest of plans, not knowing what to
anticipate outside. They only knew that they would first have to
strike boldly for possession of the control alcove--which, without
doubt meant they would have, somehow, to kill Xantra--to find and kill
a man they could not see, yet who could see them. An enormous task.
And only the first of several.

For a moment, realizing this, they hesitated at the door. But the die
had been cast; there was nothing for them to do but go forward--and
quickly; so, giving Jim a final warning that they must stick together,
Clee opened wide the door and stepped out into the corridor.

What he saw there halted, him in his tracks.

"The slaves!" gasped Jim, and involuntarily both Earth-men backed into
the room again. The creatures they had seen at once followed them
inside.

Ther