helmet peered into
mine.

"So it is you, Haljan! I thought I recognized that little device over
your helmet bracket. And here is my little Anita, come back to me
again!"

Miko!

This was he. His great bloated arms encircling me, bending me
backward, holding me helpless. I saw over his shoulder that Anita was
clutched in the grip of another helmeted figure. No giant, but tall
for an Earth man--almost as tall as myself. Then the tube light in the
room illumined the visor. I saw the face, recognized it. Moa!

I gasped, "So--I've got you--Miko--"

"Got me! You're a fool to the last, Haljan! A fool to the last! But
you were always a fool."

I could scarcely move in his grip. My arms were pinned. As he slowly
bent me backward, I wound my legs around one of his: it was as
unyielding as a steel pillar. He had closed the outer panel; the air
pressure in the lock was rising. I could feel it against my suit.

My helmeted head was being forced backward; Miko's left arm held me.
In his gloved right hand as it came slowly up over my throat I saw a
knife blade, its naked, sharpened metal glistening blue-white in the
light from overhead.

I seized his wrist. But my puny strength could not hold him. The
knife, against all of my efforts, came slowly down.

A moment of this slow, deadly combat--the end of everything for me.

I was aware of the helmeted figure of Moa casting off Anita--and then
the two girls leaping upon Miko. It threw him off his balance, and my
hanging weight made him topple forward. He took a step to recover
himself; his hand with the knife was flung up with an instinctive,
involuntary balancing gesture. And as it came down again, I forced the
knife-blade to graze his throat. Its point caught in the fabric of his
suit.

His startled oath jangled in my ears. The girls were clawing at him;
we were all four scrambling, swaying. With despairing strength I
twisted at his wrist. The knife went into his throat. I plunged it
deeper.

His suit went flabby. He crumpled over me and fell, knocking me to the
floor. His voice, with the horrible gurgling rasp of death in it,
rattled my ear-grids.

"Not such a fool--are you, Haljan--"

Moa's helmeted head was close over us. I saw that she had seized the
knife, jerked it from her brother's throat. She leaped backward,
waving it.

I twisted from beneath Miko's lifeless, inert body. As I got to my
feet, Anita flung herself to shield me. Moa was across the lock, back