ed for the Moon? I wondered.

Carter and I were planning nothing. What was there to plan? We were
under observation. A Martian paralyzing ray--or an electronic beam,
far more deadly than our own puny weapons--would have struck us the
instant we tried to leave the chart room.

My thoughts were interrupted by a shout from down the deck. At a
corner of the cabin superstructure some fifty feet from our windows
the figure of Miko appeared. A radiance barrage hung about him like a
shimmering mantle. His voice sounded: "Gregg Haljan, do you yield?"

Carter leaped up from where he and I were crouching. Against all
reason of safety he leaned from the low window, waving his hamlike
fist.

"Yield? No! I am in command here, you pirate! Brigand--murderer!"

I dragged him back sharply. "For God's sake--"

He was spluttering; and over it Miko's sardonic laugh sounded. "Shall
we argue about it?"

I stood up. "What do you want to say, Miko?"

Behind him the tall, thin figure of his sister showed. She was
plucking at him. He turned violently. "I won't harm him! Gregg
Haljan--is this a truce? You will not shoot?" He was shielding Moa.

"No," I called. "For a moment, no. A truce. What is it you want to
say?"

I could hear the babble of passengers who were herded in the cabin
with brigands guarding them. George Prince, bare-headed, but shrouded
in his cloak, showed in a patch of light behind Moa. He looked my way
and then retreated.

Miko called, "You must yield. We want you, Haljan."

"No doubt," I jeered.

"Alive. It is easy to kill you."

I could not doubt that. Carter and I were little more than rats in a
trap. But Miko wanted to take me alive: that was not so simple. He
added persuasively:

"We want you to navigate us. Will you?"

"No."

"Will you help us, Captain Carter? Tell your cub, this Haljan, to
yield."

Carter roared, "Get back from there. There is no truce!"

I shoved aside his leveled projector. "Wait a minute, Miko. Navigate
where?"

"That is our business. When you come out here, I will give you the
course."

I realized that all this parley was a ruse of Miko's to take me alive.
He had made a gesture. Hahn, watching him from the turret window,
doubtless flashed a signal down to the hull corridors. The magnetizer
control under the chart room was altered, our artificial gravity cut
off. I felt the sudden lightness: I gripped the window casement and
clung. Carter was startled into incautious moveme