The girl's face was white, her lips trembling. Her thoughts reached him, heavy with regret. "Goodbye, Earthman!" The chemist's lips went grim. "Goodbye, Gena," he answered. Then a Sediphron guard shoved him roughly toward the door, after Storm. * * * * * The dissecting room was high-walled, white, full of strange apparatus that only vaguely resembled similar machines of Earth. There was the Martian fluoroscope with which Storm and Hammond were minutely examined, and notes taken on a Martian "talkie"--evidently a highly advanced type camera with sound track arrangement which recorded that revealed by the fluoroscope and the comments of the observer. The fluoroscope was a vast improvement over the earth type. Hammond, watching Storm being examined with it, saw that any part of his companion's internal anatomy could be brought into sharp focus on the screen. Heart, lungs, bone structure, arteries. Each was minutely examined, probed into--the while the Martian "talkie" hummed softly. A number of strange drugs were needled into them as they stood behind the fluoroscope. Drugs that burned like fire, contorting their bodies with convulsions, and which were immediately eased by the introduction of a neutralizing drug. Others that paralyzed motor nerves, and that deadened the sensory cells. All was recorded by the laboratory scientists. Finally, Hammond and Storm were strapped on the dissecting tables. A blinding, white light beat down on their almost naked bodies. Zuggoth came into the laboratory then. For a few moments he and the laboratory scientists held a consultation. Hammond, craning his neck, could see the Sediphron king's crablike mouth work, see the ball-like eyes wave on the end of their stalks. The Martian "talkie" was run for him, the picture sequences thrown against a special screen that held the scenes clear without the dimming of the bright laboratory lights. Zuggoth watched attentively, only his revolting eyes swaying. Then he waved his huge claw. The "talkie" was shut off. Huge, hideous, he walked to the dissecting tables. A smaller table, holding a gleaming array of scalpels and cutting instruments of all types was wheeled to his side. [Illustration: _Zuggoth turned to Hammond. His dwarfed right hand, humanlike, with tiny fingers, picked up a glittering knife._] He turned to Hammond. His dwarfed right hand, humanlike, with tiny fingers, picked up a knife. * * * * * At that moment a hidden bell began to clang incessantly. Zuggoth paused, half turned. The laboratory assistants fidgeted. One of them said: "It is the alarm signal, First One. Something has happened in the ship!" Zuggoth hesitated. Then he flung the knife down on the small table. "Keep guard over the Earthians, Cuzzvi," he snapped to the head scientist. "I will see what's causing the trouble!"