This Miko was, from our Earth standards, a tremendous, brawny giant. Not spindly, like most Martians, this fellow, for all his seven feet of height, was almost heavy-set. He wore a plaited leather jerkin beneath his robe, and knee pants of leather out of which his lower legs showed as gray, hairy pillars of strength. He had come into the salon with a swagger, his sword-ornament clanking. "A pleasant voyage so far," he said to me as he started his meal. His voice had the heavy, throaty rasp characteristic of the Martian. He spoke perfect English--both Martians and Venus people are by heritage extraordinary linguists. Miko and his sister Moa had a touch of Martian accent, worn almost away by living for some years in Great-New York. The shock to me came within a few minutes. Miko, absorbed in attacking his meal, inadvertently pushed back his robe to bare his forearm. An instant only, then it dropped again to his wrist. But in that instant I had seen, upon the gray flesh, a thin sear turned red. A very recent burn--as though a pencil-ray of heat had caught his arm. My mind flung back. Only last night in the City Corridor, Snap and I had been followed by a Martian. I had shot at him with the heat-ray; I thought I had hit him on the arm. Was this the mysterious Martian who had followed us from Halsey's office? CHAPTER V _Venza the Venus Girl_ It was shortly after that mid-day meal when I encountered Venza sitting on the starlit deck. I had been in the bow observatory; taken my routine castings of our position and worked them out. I was, I think, of the Planetara's officers the most expert handler of the mathematical mechanical calculators. The locating of our position and charting the trajectory of our course was, under ordinary circumstances, about all I had to do. And it took only a few minutes each twelve hours. I had a moment with Carter in the isolation of his chart-room. "This voyage! Gregg, I'm getting like you--too fanciful. We've a normal group of passengers, apparently; but I don't like the look of any of them. That Ob Hahn, at your table--" "Snaky-looking fellow," I commented. "He and the Englishman are great on arguments. Did you have Prince's cabin searched?" My breath hung on his answer. "Yes. Nothing unusual among his things. We searched both his room and his sister's." I did not follow that up. Instead I told him about the burn on Miko's thick gray arm. * * * * * He stared. "I wish to the Almighty we were at Ferrok-Shahn. Gregg, to-night when the passengers are asleep, come here to me. Snap will be here, and Dr. Frank. We can trust him." "He knows about--about the Grantline treasure?" "Yes. And so do Balch and Blackstone." Balch and Blackstone were our first and second officers. "We'll all meet here, Gregg--say about the zero hour. We must take some precautions." He suddenly felt he should say no more now. He dismissed me.