"May I have the honor of conducting our guests back to their ship in a plane?" Stanton requested of Fragoni. The latter nodded and Stanton walked across the terrace in the direction of the landing stage. Zitlan, as he followed after the others, passed close to Dirk and, pausing for a moment, fixed his hateful eyes on him. "You dog," he whispered malignantly, "remember what I tell you! The time will come when I will cast you to the carnaphlocti in the dark and icy caverns of sunless Tiganda. You will die," he swore, "the death of a million agonies!" For a moment Dirk felt an almost irresistible impulse to hurl himself on the Lodorian and slay him. He managed to maintain his control, however, and only regarded Zitlan with disdain as the latter turned and went on his way. In another moment the plane, containing Stanton and the Lodorians, was high up in the darkness. Dirk glanced at the great clock that gleamed atop of the beacon-tower on the Metropole Landing Field. The hour was close to twelve-thirty A. M. * * * * * A moment of silence on the terrace followed the departure of the plane that bore the Lodorians back to their craft. For an hour the clouds had been gathering in the sky and now a fine, cold rain commenced to fall. A peal of thunder echoed above them after a sharp flash of lightning had streaked across the black night above them. A servant appeared from the entrance to the apartment and pressed a button close to the door. Protective plates of glass noiselessly enveloped the terrace, sheltering those upon it from the inclement weather. "It is well," remarked Fragoni, breaking the silence, "that we were found by a leader like Teuxical. Our tribute will not be unbearable, and he will bestow many benefits upon us." "But surely," protested Dirk, "you do not intend to surrender without a struggle! Nothing but disaster," he asserted earnestly, "will come upon the earth if you do. Teuxical may be honest and just but, after all, he neither is immortal nor all-powerful, and something may happen to him at any moment. And there are those like Zitlan who would turn the world over to ravage and rape, and then convert it into a blazing pyre, if they had their way. These vandals," he insisted, "must be slain one and all, or, mark my words, our world will be laid waste." * * * * * Dirk spoke with such a sense of conviction that his words held his listeners spellbound.