I leaped down the last half of that little side ladder. On the dim side deck ten feet away, two men were fighting, one in white gold uniform, the other a deckhand. They rolled on the deck. A knife flashed.... Another man came suddenly from the smoking lounge doorway. He plunged at me, whirling an iron bar. My Banning flash met him head on; I jumped aside as his dead body catapulted to the deck. There was another flash. One of the rolling, fighting men on the deck went limp. The other rose. It was the fat little Peter Green, Second Officer. He was panting; his face streaked with blood. "Get to your room," he gasped as he saw me. "All passengers stay in your cubbies. Piracy!" The passengers were shouting now; from a nearby corridor entrance women were screaming. Then from up at the turret, Mackensie turned on the vessel's distress siren. Its shrill, dismal electrical whine sounded above the turmoil. "Go up to the control turret," I shouted at Green. I dashed into the corridor. Passengers scattered to right and left before me. "Get into your rooms," I shouted. "Everybody stay in. Barricade--" An Earth-woman screamed; somebody shouted, "That big Martian--murderer--I saw him killing--" Two little Lunites, mine workers, a young man and a girl, stood with arms around each other in one of the doorways. Pallid little people, confused, helpless, cringing. I shoved them back into their room and banged their door. Then I turned into the main corridor, ran aft along it, came to the next cross passage. Nina! I saw her, ahead of me in the corridor, close by her smashed door. She was struggling, fighting with the snaky Venus man Ollog Torio; his arms lifted her up as he tried to carry her. I shouted an oath; I did not dare fire. And at the sound of my voice he dropped her, made off through the end door so quickly that I had no time to drill him. "Nina! Nina!" I gathered her up, frail little thing in her negligee with her luxuriant black hair streaming down. "Nina, did he hurt you?" "No! No, I'm all right." She was breathless; pallid; her dark eyes were pools of terror. "Oh, dear God!" she gasped. "It's come." She clutched at me. "That hunchback--that fellow Durk--have you seen him?" "No, I haven't." Her question sent a shudder through me. I set her on her feet. "We've got to get up to the control turret. The captain--his loyal officers up there." "Oh--Oh, Lord!" With a new anguish of terror upon her face she jerked away from me, ran for her doorway. I saw where Torio had melted through its lock with a heat blast. I dashed through it after her, and caught her in the center of her room. "Nina, what's the matter?" * * * * * The oblong coffin box! It lay flat on the floor, over by the wall of the dim room. In a sudden lull of the ship's chaos the rhythmic ticking was audible. And now there were other sounds from within the box! A thumping! A low, mumbling man's voice!