terference-heat--but he clung
to it, though it burned him. Sparks were snapping in the blackness
around us. Our isolation was dissolving. Someone--something--was
breaking it down, struggling to get at us!

CHAPTER IX

_Paralyzed!_

The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving.
Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage,
struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me,
Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was
glowing red in his hand from intense heat.

Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his
words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:

"We're trapped! _You_, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape."

The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a
weapon into Georg's hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.

"Princess Maida ... she ... in that other tower ... you, so much more
important than the rest of us...." Phrases I heard; but only phrases,
for in those few seconds I stood dumbly confused, fascinated by watching
the blackness in which we had enveloped ourselves now breaking into
lurid, angry sparks.

A distant corner of the room became visible; outlines of the wall-beams;
the growing glare of a wall-light in a tube over there. And through the
brightening gloom--the figure of a lone man standing. Tarrano!

I heard Georg mutter: "Jac! Make a show of fight! Hold him! But
careful--careful of Elza!"

Behind me there came an electrical flash; the pungent smell of burning
cloth. Georg was no longer beside us!

Elza was still clinging to me in fright. I shook her off. Wolfgar flung
his smoking, useless cylinder to the floor. The blackness at once sprang
into light; the sparks died. Tarrano was standing in the room, quietly,
before us. Standing with a grim, cynical smile, regarding us.

But only for an instant did he stand quiet. Across the room, creeping
for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw
him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the
interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at
another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg.

Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped
toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me. Elza screamed. Tarrano's
hand was leaving his belt. I reached him; flung out my fist for his
face.

But in that instant the