A cave, its brilliant lights dimming the glow of luminous bodies, lay before them. Well furnished from looted ships, auxiliary engines from some plundered liner, run by rocket fuel, supplied electricity to power the great arc lights that hung from the ceiling. One entire end of the room was an Aladdin's cave of treasures. Bars of gold, from the mines of Saturn, stacked in towering heaps ... leaden chests of radium, uranium, polonium, a nation's ransom of the stuff for which men died in the great fields of Venus ... and jewels, huge Martian rubies, big as pigeon's eggs, flame-colored _karnites_ of Io, even the rare _crystolex_ that collects, absorbs, light, until it gives off a diffused pink aura. Loot of a hundred vessels that had met their doom on this Island of Lost Spaceships, utterly worthless on the barren asteroid, yet hoarded because of the legend that they were prized on other worlds, because lure of treasure lingered in the savage minds of the sub-men. Incalculable as was this treasure, Haller gave it but a passing glance. His gaze was fixed on the glowing, hideous figures grouped about the cave. With them were Carlson, Seltzsky, Wallace, and Kindt ... renegades, joining these inhuman brutes, fearing the consequences of refusal. In the center of the cave stood Orth, a gigantic, semi-simian figure, his herculean body shining like a cat's eye, and beside him stood Fay. All the joyousness, the gayety, the beauty, that had bedeviled Haller's memories, were gone from the girl. Pale, emaciated, worn by constant fear, she seemed scarcely aware of her surroundings, stood there like a sleepwalker. "I claim the new woman!" Orth boomed, his guttural voice echoing through the cavern. "Does anyone dispute it?" For a long moment there was silence, then a repulsive, embryonic creature, nearly as big as the leader, stepped forward. "You have another woman!" he growled. "I claim this one!" A roar went up from the sub-men. "Let strength decide! Fight!" Orth grinned, advanced toward the center of the cave to meet his opponent. Unarmed, barehanded, they circled one another, uttering strange animal-like sounds. All at once the second claimant hurtled forward, taloned fingers clutching for Orth's eyes. He risked all in that one frenzied charge but the leader of the sub-men saw it coming, moved his head. The claw-like fingers raked his cheek, drawing blood, but missed his eyes. In that instant Orth sprang to the attack. Seizing his opponent about the waist, he lifted him high with one titanic burst of energy, slammed him to the rocky floor. There was a sharp, sickening crack, and the man lay still. "So!" Orth roared. "Do any others claim the new woman? I, Orth...."