"They have taken my belt away, Talu, these slavers who raid _Malya_ and _Chonya_ alike. They have locked me here like a berserk _vrong_, and thrown the key away. But my oath still stands. The _Chonyas_ made me _gar_ because I knew how to fight, and feared no man. So I'll fight here." The fierce eagerness crept back into Talu's face. Her hands clutched his. "Yes, yes! But what can you do?" "I'll carve my way, _Malyalara_! I'll give them blood for blood and tears for tears, till the asteroids breath free again!" The ring of steel on steel was in Shane's voice. His face was carved with rocky lines. "You told me that a _Malya_ does not scream, Talu. But if you _were_ to scream, just once, would that slimy Thorian guard outside pay heed?" She caught her breath. "And ... if he did--?" Shane smiled a thin, hard, ruthless smile. "Even in leg-irons I can drag myself to the door." He bent over the cot and pulled free the broken cross-strap; slashed with it so it sighed and whispered through the air. "It sings a song of death, Talu!" The woman's midnight eyes burned murder-bright. Her voice was a breathless whisper: "Strike hard and straight and fast, _Sha_ Shane...." CHAPTER III "Now!" Shane clipped. The slave girl screamed--shrilly, piercingly. Shane poised, the cross-strap mace drawn back and ready. A dim whisper of running feet echoed from the corridor outside. The lock clicked sharply. The door burst open. Light-gun already drawn, the Thorian guard lunged into the cell. Shane swung the steel. The Thorian's eyes flicked to the Earthman in the same instant. Desperately, he tried to halt his headlong plunge--to throw himself sidewise, out of the way. He moved too late. The steel struck home. The end bit in along one side of the Thorian's bulbous head. It made a moist, explosive sound, like the bursting of a melon hurled onto pavement. Vile, grey-green sludge gushed forth. The Thorian's great body jerked in a tremendous, threshing spasm. The light-pistol still clutched in one tentacle, needled a wildly-gyrating purple beam close past Shane's shoulder, then cut off again and clattered to the floor. The body went limp; lay still. Shane dropped to his knees and clawed up the pistol. Twisting, he brought its muzzle close to the hobbling leg-irons. His finger triggered the exciter. The purple beam lanced forth. The leg-irons' green telonium links took on a weirdly luminous glow. Somewhere in the distance, a faint, humming sound arose. Talu said: "Hurry! That noise--it is the guard-car!" Tension echoed in her voice. Muscles stood out along Shane's neck. But he still crouched motionless, the light-beam rock-steady in his hand. The humming sound grew louder. "Hurry!" Talu whispered again in a tight, choked voice. The telonium links were twisting, now--writhing, almost, beneath the pistol's ray. "Ten seconds more!" Shane clipped. The leg-irons fell apart. * * * * *