d us for
weapons, seized our helmet lights. The evil face of a giant Martian
peered at me through the visors. Two other monstrous, towering figures
seized Anita.

We were shoved toward the port locks at the base of the ship's hull.
Above the hull bulge I could see the grids of projectors mounted on
the dome side, and the figures of men standing on the deck, peering
down at us.

We went through the admission locks into a hull corridor, up an
incline passage, and reached the lighted deck. The Martian brigands
crowded around us.

XXIX

Anita's words echoed in my memory: "We must do our best to be
convincing." It was not her ability that I doubted, as much as my own.
She had played the part of George Prince cleverly, unmasked only by an
evil chance.

I steeled myself to face the searching glances of the brigands as they
shoved around us. This was a desperate game into which we had plunged.
For all our acting, how easy it would be for some small chance thing
abruptly to undo us! I realized it, and now, as I gazed into the
peering faces of these men from Mars, I cursed myself for the witless
rashness which had brought Anita into this!

The brigands--some ten or fifteen of them here on deck--stood in a
ring around us. They were all big men, nearly of a seven-foot average,
dressed in leather jerkins and short leather breeches, with bare knees
and flaring leather boots. Piratical swaggering fellows, knife-blades
mingled with small hand projectors fastened to their belts. Gray,
heavy faces, some with scraggly, unshaven beards. They plucked at us,
jabbering in Martian.

One of them seemed the leader. I said sharply, "Are you the commander
here? You speak the Earth English?"

"Yes," he said readily. "I am commander here." He spoke English with
the same freedom and accent as Miko. "Is this George Prince's sister?"

"Yes. Her name is Anita Prince. Tell your men to take their hands off
her."

He waved his men away. They all seemed more interested in Anita than
in me. He added:

"I am _Set_ Potan." He addressed Anita. "George Prince's sister? You
are called Anita? I have heard of you. I knew your brother--indeed,
you look very much like him."

He swept his plumed hat to the grid with a swaggering gesture of
homage. A courtierlike fellow this, debonair as a Venus cavalier!

He accepted us. I realized that Anita's presence was extremely
valuable in making us convincing. Yet there was about this Potan--as
with