words. These the forces that clashed in the episode set out
below: that clashed, then drew apart, and knew not one another for
years....

* * * * *

It will be recalled that, in the second of these four episodes, "The
Affair of the Brains,"[1] Hawk Carse, Eliot Leithgow, and the Negro
Friday broke free from Dr. Ku's secret lair, his outwardly invisible
asteroid, and in doing so thought they had destroyed the Eurasian and
all his works, including the infamous machine of coordinated brains.
In the third episode, "The Bluff of the Hawk,"[2] it will be
remembered that the companions came in Dr. Ku's self-propulsive
space-suits to Satellite III of Jupiter; and that there Carse learned
that in reality the Eurasian and the brains had survived, and that Dr.
Ku might very possibly soon be in possession of a direct clue to
Leithgow's hidden laboratory on Satellite III. We saw Carse take the
lone course, as he always preferred, sending Leithgow and Friday to
his friend Ban Wilson's ranch while he went to erase the clue. And we
saw him achieve his end at the fort-ranch of Lar Tantril, strong
henchman of Ku Sui, and, in brilliant Carse fashion, turn the tables
and escape from the trap that had seemingly snared him, and proceed
towards where, fourteen miles away, Leithgow and the Negro were
waiting for him.

[Footnote 1: See the March, 1932, issue of Astounding Stories.]

[Footnote 2: See the May, 1932, issue of Astounding Stories.]

His three friends were waiting very uneasily that day. Eleven hours
had passed since Leithgow and Friday had parted from the Hawk, and
they had heard nothing from him. They knew he was going into high
peril: Leithgow had in vain tried to dissuade him; and so it was with
growing fear that they watched the hours pass by.

With Ban Wilson, they sat near dawn in the comfortable living room of
the ranch's central building. Although largely rested from the ordeal
of the journey to Satellite III, the huge Negro was fidgety, and even
Leithgow, more controlled, showed the strain by continually raising
his thin white fingers to his lined face and stroking it. Wilson's men
were on watch outside in the graying darkness, but often Friday
supplemented them, going to the door, staring down to the beach of the
bordering lake, staring up to the skies, staring at the black and
murmurous flanks of the jungle--staring, scowling and returning to sit
and look gloomily at the floor.