"A nead plan, gendlemen. Bud id has failed, jusd as all plods againsd Xan VIII will fail! Drue, you have given us a demporary sed-back by killing de Pludonians, bud we sdill have de formula and dere are odders who, dough nod as indelligend, will well serve our purpose. Id is doo bad I decided do visid you during de recess, isn'd id? Odderwise, your rash acd may have succeeded! When I found you gone and your guards dead, I knew insdandly whad you were up do and came here as de logical poind for you do sdrike from. I am sorry, gendlemen, bud you are doo dangerous do be allowed do live. So, I musd eliminade you!" Pordo raised the gun and his finger tightened on the firing stud. This was it! I couldn't blast Pordo with an electric shock without killing Augie, too. Good-bye, "Tod Mulhane"--you've had a short but interesting life! I steeled myself for the atomic capsule that would soon rip through my body. Augie acted almost impulsively. He still held the fibrous vine in his hand and had noted slyly one of Pordo's feet enmeshed in the extending end. He lunged suddenly backward and Pordo came down hard on the balcony floor! * * * * * Instantly we were on him; clawing, punching--making a desperate bid for the ato-matic. Pordo tried to scream and Augie planted a solid kick in his belly. The Jovian suddenly decided he didn't want to scream; maybe because there wasn't any air left in him to yell with. I whipped a tentacle about the fat throat and began tightening my muscles, ruthlessly. Pordo's eyes bugged hideously and the wind whistled through his teeth in a vain effort to enter his lungs. Sure, we were two on one, but fair play didn't enter the picture. We were fighting to save three worlds, and Xan and his henchmen had used the same tactics in their blood-drenched rise to power. This was a case of 'Durn aboud _is_ fair play,' as Pordo would say. Right now, he wasn't saying _anything_. The fat body had gone limp in my grasp and Pordo's evil soul was probably this minute bowing at the gates of hell and saying, "Gendlemen!" "They'll be returning any minute!" Augie panted anxiously. "We've got to work fast!" I handed him a small chunk of stuff I'd gouged from the body of a dead Plutonian and retired to my place at the balcony rail. Augie took the stuff gingerly and placed it on the flat, upturned butt of Pordo's ato-matic. He crossed the slanting balcony to a point where the ceiling almost met the floor and waited there breathlessly.