The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women-Stealers of Thrayx, by Fox B. Holden

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Title: The Women-Stealers of Thrayx

Author: Fox B. Holden

Release Date: March 6, 2010 [EBook #31523]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Planet Stories January 1954. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed.

THE WOMAN-STEALERS OF THRAYX

By FOX B. HOLDEN

_"And that is why you will take us to Earth, Lieutenant,"
barked the Ihelian warrior. "We do not want your arms or
your men. What we must ask for is--ten thousand women."_

* * * * *

Mason was nervous. It was the nervousness of cold apprehension, not
simply that which had become indigenous to his high-strung make-up. He
was, in his way, afraid; afraid that he'd again come up with a wrong
answer.

[Illustration]

He'd brought the tiny Scout too close to the Rim. Facing the facts
squarely, he knew, even as he fingered the stud that would wrench them
out of their R-curve, that he'd not just come too close. He'd overshot
entirely. Pardonable, perhaps, from the view-point of the corps of
scientists safely ensconced in their ponderous Mark VII Explorer some
fifteen light-days behind. But not according to the g-n manual.
According to it, he'd placed the Scout and her small crew in a
"situation of avoidable risk," and it would make a doubtful record
look that much worse.

[Illustration]

The next time he'd out-argue Cain with his rank if he had to. Cain was
big enough to grab things with his brawny fists and twist them into
whatever shape he wanted when the things were tangible, solid,
resisting. But R-Space was something else again. Nobody knew what it
did beyond the Rim.

He materialized the Scout into E-Space, listened for trouble from her
comput