He had in his hand too large a projector. Its ray would kill me. If he wanted to take me alive, he would not fire. I chanced it. "No!" I tried to draw myself beneath the window. An automatic bullet projector was on the floor where Carter had dropped it. I pulled myself down. Miko did not fire. I reached the revolver. The dead bodies of the captain and purser had drifted together on the floor in the center of the room. I hitched myself back to the window. With upraised weapon I gazed cautiously out. Miko had disappeared. The deck within my line of vision was empty. But was it? Something told me to beware. I clung to the casement, ready upon the instant to shove myself down. There was a movement in a shadow along the deck. Then a figure rose up. "Don't fire, Haljan!" The sharp command, half appeal, stopped the pressure of my finger on the trigger of the automatic. It was the tall lanky Englishman, Sir Arthur Coniston, as he called himself. So he too was one of Miko's band! The light through a dome-window fell full on him. "If you fire, Haljan, and kill me--Miko will kill you then, surely." From where he had been crouching he could not command my window. But now, upon the heels of his placating words, he abruptly shot. The low-powered ray, had it struck, would have felled me without killing. But it went over my head as I dropped. Its aura made my senses reel. Coniston shouted, "Haljan!" * * * * * I did not answer. I wondered if he would dare approach to see if I had been hit. A minute passed. Then another. I thought I heard Miko's voice on the deck outside. But it was an aerial, microscopic whisper close beside me. "We see you, Haljan! You must yield!" Their eavesdropping vibrations, with audible projection, were upon me. I retorted aloud. "Come and get me! You cannot take me alive." I do protest if this action of mine in the chart-room may seem bravado. I had no wish to die. There was within me a very healthy desire for life. But I felt, by holding out, that some chance might come wherewith I might turn events against these brigands. Yet reason told me it was hopeless. Our loyal members of the crew were killed, no doubt. Captain Carter and Balch were killed. The lookouts and Course-masters also. And Blackstone. There remained only Dr. Frank and Snap. Their fate I did not yet know. And there was George Prince. He, perhaps, would help me if he could. But, at best, he was a dubious ally. "You are very foolish, Haljan," murmured the projection of Miko's voice. And then I heard Coniston: "See here, why would not a hundred pounds of gold-leaf tempt you? The code-words which were taken from Johnson--I mean to say, why not tell us where they are?" So that was one of the brigands new difficulties! Snap had taken the code-word sheet, that time we sealed the purser in the cage. I said, "You'll never find them. And when a police ship sights us, what will you do then?"