He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring for an instant. And as I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon his heavy gray face a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap's startled intake of breath. He moved to the spectroheliograph, where the zed-ray connections were still humming. But with a leap Miko flung him away. "Off with you! Moa, watch him! Haljan, don't move!" [C] About fifty miles. * * * * * Again Miko stood staring. Oh dear God, I saw now that he was staring at Anita! "Why George Prince! How strange you look!" Anita did not move. She was stricken with horror: she shrank back against the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's sardonic voice came again: "How strange you look. Prince!" He took a step forward. He was grim and calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating--like a great gray monster in human form toying with a fascinated, imprisoned bird. "Move just a little Prince. Let the zed-ray light fall more fully." Anita's head was bare. That pale, Hamletlike face. Dear God, the zed-light reflection lay gray and penetrating upon it! Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, George Prince! Why, I can hardly believe it!" Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder. For all her amazement--what turgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--she never took her eyes from Snap and me. "Back! Don't move, either of you!" She hissed it at us. Then Miko leaped at Anita like giant gray leopard pouncing. "Away with that cloak, Prince!" * * * * * I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faint zed-light glow had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrated the flesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone-line of her jaw. Unmasked the waxen art of Glutz. And Miko had seen it. "Why George, how surprising! Away with that cloak!" He seized her wrist, drew her forward, beyond the shaft of zed-light, into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloak from her. The gentle curves of her woman's figure were so unmistakable! And as Miko gazed at them, all his calm triumph swept away. "Why, Anita!" I heard Moa mutter: "So that is it?" A venomous flashing look--a shaft from me to Anita and back again. "So that is it?" "Why, _Anita_!" Miko's great arms gathered her up as though she were a child. "So I have you back; from the dead delivered back to me!" "Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip over my shoulders brought me a measure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moa thrust her weapon against my face. The helio mirrors were swaying again with another message from Grantline. But it came ignored by us all. In the glare of moonlight by the forward window, Miko held Anita, his great hands pawing her with triumphant possessive caresses. "So, little Anita, you are given back to me." Against her futile struggles he held her. Dear God, if only I had had the wit to have prevented this!