I called down, "The first one who comes through will be shot." My words mingled with their oaths. There was a moment's pause, then the ramming went on. The dying man on the deck was still screaming. * * * * * I whispered, "I'll try an Earth-signal." She nodded. Pale, tense, but calm. "Yes, Gregg. And I was thinking--" "It won't take a minute. Have your helmet ready." "I was thinking--" She hurried across the room. I swung on the Botz signaling apparatus. It was connected. Within a moment I had it humming. The fluorescent tubes lighted with their lurid glare; they painted purple the body of the giant duty-man who lay sprawled at my feet. I drew on all the ship's power. The tube-lights in the room quivered and went dim. I would have to hurry. Potan could shut this off from the main hull control room. I could see, through the room's upper trap, the primary sending mirror mounted in the peak of the dome. It was quivering, radiant with its light-energy. I sent the flash. The flattened, past-full Earth was up there. I knew that the western hemisphere faced the Moon at this hour. I flashed in English, with the open Universal Earth-code: "_Help! Grantline._" And again: "_Send help! Archimedes region near Apennines. Attacked by brigands. Send help at once! Grantline!_" If only it would be received! I flung off the current. Anita stood watching me intently. "Gregg, look!" She had taken some of the glass globe-bombs which lay by the foot of the ascending ladder. She held some of them now. "Gregg. I threw some." * * * * * At the window we gazed down. The globes she flung had shattered on the deck. They were occulting darkness bombs.[5] [Footnote 5: Filled with an odorless, harmless gas, these bombs were used in warfare, taking the place of the old-fashioned smoke screens. The diffusing gas was of such a nature that, when released, it absorbed within itself all the color inherent to the light-rays striking it, thus creating a temporary darkness.] Through the blackness of the deck, the shouts of the brigands came up. They were stumbling about. But the ramming of our trap went on, and I saw that it was beginning to yield. One corner of it was bent up. "We've got to go, Anita!" "Yes." From out of the darkness which hung like a shroud over the deck an occasional flash came up, unaimed--wide of our windows. But the darkness was dissipating. I could see now the dim glow of the deck lights, blurred as through a heavy fog. I dropped another of the bombs. "Put on your helmet." "Yes--yes, I will. You put on yours." We had them adjusted in a moment. Our Erentz motors were pumping. I gripped her. "Put out your helmet-light." She extinguished it. I handed her my bullet projector. "Hold it a moment. I'm going to take that belt of bombs."