We followed the man into the building's broad central corridor. Anita and Venza were riding a midget platform! Anita, in her boyish black garb; Venza, with a flowing white Venus-robe. They lay on the tiny six foot long oblong of metal, one manipulating its side shields, the other at the controls. As we arrived, the platform came sliding down the narrow confines of the corridor, lurching, barely missing a door projection. Up to the low vaulted ceiling, then down to the floor. It sailed over our heads, rising over us as we ducked. Anita waved her hand. Grantline gasped, "By the infernal!" I shouted, "Anita, stop!" But they only waved at us, skimming down the length of the corridor, seeming to avoid a smash a dozen times by the smallest margin of chance, stopping miraculously at the further end, hanging poised in mid-air, wheeling, coming back, undulating up and down. Grantline clung to me. "By the gods of the airways!" In spite of my astonished horror, I could not but share Grantline's admiration. Three or four other men were watching. The girls were amazingly skillful, no doubt of that. There was not a man among us who could have handled that gravity platform indoors, not one who would have had the brash temerity to try it. The platform landed with the grace of a humming bird at our feet, the girls dexterously balancing so that it came to rest swiftly, without the least bump. I confronted them. "Anita, what are you doing?" She stood up, flushed and smiling. "Practicing." "What for?" Venza's roguish eyes twinkled at me. Her hands went to her slim hips with a gesture of defiance. She asked, "Are you speaking for yourself or the Commander?" I ignored her. "What for?" "Because we're good at it," Anita retorted. "Better than any of you men. If you should need us, we're ready...." "We won't!" I said shortly. "But if you should...." Venza put in, "If Snap and I hadn't come for you, you wouldn't be here, Gregg Haljan. I didn't notice you were so horrified to see me holding that shield up over you!" It silenced me. She added, "Commander, let us alone. We won't smash anything." Grantline laughed. "I hope you won't!" A warning call took us back to the front window. The brigands' searchlight was again being used. It swept slowly along the length of the cliff. Its circle went down the cliff steps to the valley floor, and came sweeping up again. Then it went up to the observatory platform at the summit above us, then over to the ore sheds. We had no men outside, if that was what the brigands wanted to determine. The searchbeam presently vanished. It was replaced immediately by a zed-ray, which darted at once to our treasure sheds and clung. That stung Grantline into his first action. We flung our own zed-ray down across the valley. It reached the brigand ship and the blurred interior of the cabins. "Try the searchbeam, Franck."