the stern storeroom."

It decided Brotow. He waved away the Martian who had stopped me.

"Let them pass."

Anita and I gave him our most friendly smiles.

"Thanks."

He bowed to Anita with a sweeping gesture. "I will show you over the
control room presently."

His gaze went to the peak of the bow.

The little hooded cubby there was the control room, then. Satisfaction
swept me. Then above us in the tower, must surely be the signal room.
Would Brotow follow us up? I hoped not. I wanted to be alone with the
duty man up there, giving me a chance to get at the projector controls
if Miko's signal should come.

I drew Anita past Brotow, who had stood aside. "Thanks," I repeated.
"We won't be long."

We mounted the little ladder.

XXXI

"Hurry, Anita!"

I feared that Potan might come up from the hull at any moment and stop
us. The duty man over us gazed down, his huge head and shoulders
blocking the small signal room window. Brotow called up in Martian,
telling him to let us come. He scowled, but when we reached the trap
in the room floor grid, we found him standing aside to admit us.

I flung a swift glance around. It was a metallic cubby, not much over
fifteen feet square, with an eight foot arched ceiling. There were
instrument panels. The range finder for the giant projector was here;
its telescope with the trajectory apparatus and the firing switch were
unmistakable. And the signaling apparatus was here! Not a Martian set,
but a fully powerful Botz ultra-violet sender with its attendant
receiving mirrors. The _Planetara_ had used the Botz system, so I was
thoroughly familiar with it.

I saw too, what seemed to be weapons: a row of small fragile glass
globes, hanging on clips along the wall--bombs, each the size of a
man's fist. And a broad belt with bombs in its padded compartments.

My heart was pounding as my first quick glance took in these details.
I saw also that the room had four small oval window openings. They
were breast high above the floor; from the deck below I knew that the
angle of vision was such that the men down there could not see into
this room except to glimpse its upper portion near the ceiling. And
the helio set was banked on a low table near the floor.

In a corner of the room a small ladder led through a ceiling trap to
the cubby roof. This upper trap was open. Four feet above the room's
roof was the arch of the dome, with the entrance to the exit-lock
directly above