ugh my cloak. Got him! He fell. I
shoved Anita violently.

"Run! Tell Miko to come--tell him you heard a shout. He won't suspect
you!"

"But, Gregg--"

"You mustn't be found out. You're our only hope, Anita! I'll hide, fix
the cloak, or get back to my cubby. We'll try again."

It decided her. She scurried down the corridor. I whirled the other
way. The steward's shout might not have been heard.

Then realization flashed to me. That steward would be revived. He was
one of Miko's men. He would be revived and tell what he had seen and
heard. Anita's disguise would be revealed.

A cold-blooded killing, I do protest, went against me. But it was
necessary. I flung myself upon him. I beat his skull with the metal of
my cylinder.

I stood up. My hood had fallen back from my head. I wiped my bloody
hands on my useless cloak. I had smashed the cylinder.

"Haljan!"

Anita's voice! A sharp note of horror and warning. I became aware that
in the corridor, forty feet down its dim length, Miko had appeared
with Anita behind him. His bullet projector was leveled. It spat at
me. But Anita had pulled at his arm.

The explosive report was sharply deafening in the confined space of
the corridor. With a spurt of flame the leaden pellet struck over my
head against the vaulted ceiling.

Miko was struggling with Anita. "Prince, you idiot!"

"Miko, it's Haljan! Don't kill him--"

The turmoil brought members of the crew. From the shadowed oval near
me they came running. I flung the useless cylinder at them. But I was
trapped in the narrow passage.

I might have fought my way out. Or Miko might have shot me. But there
was the danger that, in her horror, Anita would betray herself.

I backed against the wall. "Don't kill me! See, I will not fight!"

I flung up my arms. And the crew, emboldened and courageous under
Miko's gaze, leaped on me and bore me down.

The futile plans of humans! Anita and I had planned so carefully. And
in a few brief minutes of action it had come only to this!

XVII

"So, Gregg Haljan, you are not as loyal as you pretend!"

Miko was livid with suppressed anger. They had stripped the cloak from
me, and flung me back in my cubby. Miko was now confronting me: at the
door Moa stood watching. And Anita was behind her. I sat outwardly
defiant and sullen on my bunk. But I was tense and alert, fearful
still of what Anita's emotion might betray her into doing.

"Not so loyal," Miko repeated. "And