hard to tell you, Eddie, but I couldn't because
of the drugs they gave us."

"The Vininese never knew I was deaf," Hurd went on. "It's easy enough
to escape from a work camp when you can think for yourself. The
Vininese resistance found me in the hills and I've been working with
them ever since. A pitiful band of the deaf, fighting insurmountable
odds to win back the human dignity of half the galaxy! But they won't
turn tail and run and their numbers grow every time they raid a work
camp."

"Were you with the men who kidnapped Glenna?"

"We were all out that night, trying to keep watch on the camps near
the capital. We didn't know which one Glenna was in but I was sure the
Vininese would try to reach her after they got your teleray message.
We counted on the Vininese leading us to her and we knew we had to
kidnap her first if we were to keep them from learning about the Plan
on Agron.

"Unfortunately I wasn't with the group that picked you up, Eddie. They
thought they had taken a Vininese leader and it seemed such a suitable
punishment to take your disk away and let you hear the sound for a
while. Later--after you'd escaped--when the others described your
Air-Command uniform I took a chance and sent my note."

He helped Dirrul to his feet. "You'll have to take over from here on
in, Eddie. You said you knew how to pilot this thing. I figured out a
take-off but that's as far as I can go."

"Sorgel's pilot showed me once," he said. "What I don't remember I'll
improvise. He said a Space-dragon could make the run in thirty days.
This baby's got to do it in less than twenty-five if we're going to
beat the Vininese fleet to Agron."

"You didn't tell them the Plan, did you, Eddie?"

"No."

"The Vininese won't land without instructions."

"Sorgel may get up enough courage to send a teleray code. We can't
take any chances either."

Dirrul drove himself without rest. He cut every corner he knew, used
every trick of navigational skill he had ever learned. Nonetheless it
was twenty-eight days before the little ship hung in the air over the
Agronian capital.

His heart sank. On the space-field, in neat ranks, the Vininese
space-fleet was drawn up in proud review. The planet had fallen!
Dirrul made his decision instinctively.

The Space-dragon wheeled and swept low over the field, its vicious
guns blazing. The yellow clouds of destruction swept up toward the
sky--the little ship was caught in the blazing flame. The