Anita put in, smiling, "He knows by now that we have unmasked his lure. Haljan and I, joining you--that silenced him. His light went out very promptly, didn't it?" She flashed me a side gaze. Were we acting convincingly? But if Miko started up his signals again, they might so quickly betray us! Anita's thoughts were upon that, for she added: "Grantline will not dare show his light! If he does, _Set_ Potan, we can blast him from here with a ray. Can't we?" "Yes," Potan agreed. "If he comes within ten miles, I have one powerful enough. We are assembling it now." "And we have thirty men?" Anita persisted. "When we sail down to attack him, it should not be difficult to kill all the Grantline party." "By heaven, Haljan, this girl of yours is small, but very bloodthirsty!" "And I'm glad Miko is dead," Anita added. I explained, "That accursed Miko murdered her brother." Acting! And never once did we dare relax. If only Miko's signals would hold off and give us time! * * * * * We may have talked for half an hour. We were in a small steel-lined cubby, located in the forward deck of the ship. The dome was over it. I could see from where I sat at the table that there was a forward observatory tower under the dome quite near here. The ship was laid out in rather similar fashion to the _Planetara_, though considerably smaller. Potan had dismissed his men from the cubby so as to be alone with us. Out on the deck I could see them dragging apparatus about, bringing the mechanisms of giant projectors up from below and beginning to assemble them. Occasionally some of the men would come to our cubby windows to peer in curiously. My mind was roaming as I talked. For all my manner of casualness, I knew that haste was necessary. Whatever Anita and I were to do must be quickly done. But to win this fellow's utter confidence first was necessary, so that we might have the freedom of the ship, might move about unnoticed, unwatched. I was horribly tense inside. Through the dome windows across the deck from the cubby, the rocks of the Lunar landscape were visible. I could see the brink of this ledge upon which the ship lay, the descending crags down the precipitous wall of Archimedes to the Earthlit plains far below. Miko, Moa, and a few of the _Planetara's_ crew were down there somewhere. Anita and I had a fairly definite plan. We were now in Potan's confidence; this interview at an end, I felt that our status among the brigands would be established. We would be free to move about the ship, join in its activities. It ought to be possible to locate the signal room, get friendly with the operator there.