The automaton scampered out in advance and a howl of laughter shook the terra cotta walls. Frederix glimpsed Manuel Onupari rising from a drink-laden table beyond the arc-lamps, a reluctant scowl on his black-jowled, evil face as he argued vehemently with a Vron who was plainly encouraging the renegade's men to take their leader to the waiting ship. But at the sound of applause, Onupari shook himself free and sank back into his seat, exploding in drunken laughter, calling for more wine. (Out of Kaa flashing flames in the night--) A sigh of relief on his lips, Frederix looked down at that pink, bewhiskered face, unspeakably comical, unspeakably innocent as they swung into the Saga, holding its cues while the crowd roared, giving them full punch under the sensitive direction of the electrical life which seemed to know so much of all things. "I will take my atomic and sweep through the stars And chase all the girlies from Pluto to Mars; I'm a knight with a steed which belches out flame; I'm a whooper, by golly, Vamose is my name! "Monk is my partner--he rides on my knee! He flirts with them girlies, what a grand sight to see! From Callisto to Luna, from mountain to shore We still are a-whoopin'; may the rockets roar!" Whereupon they swung into an animated recital of how they, privateers ranging the void, had heard Sal broadcasting from a Martian station, and, unutterably fascinated by her siren's call, landed only to be turned over to the Service since she was a Service dame, and to sit in a jail cell and watch her say I do to that Callistan blue midget in a magnificent jail house wedding for dear old publicity's sake! What a wild, uproarious yarn that was; what shouting, whistling, stomping arose in that semi-barbaric place! And the minutes were fleeing--and the miles behind the ships plunging onward-- * * * * * Mad thunder of applause broken by an equally mad roar. Meevo, pale, wild-eyed, bursting into the club, crying out: "Onupari! Planes riding the beam in from Kaa--two hundred miles away! Come on, you drunken fool!" And Meevo jerked the drunken commander to his unsteady feet, slapped his face with an insane violence, threw him into the arms of some less-drunken men and rushed them and his fellow Vron out into the night. _They were coming!_ Coming, yes, but fifteen endless minutes away! Half that time would see Onupari's powerful ship standing out into cosmic space! And the native impetuosity of Hunter Frederix could not fail to come. Heated thoughts surged through his brain. His hand strayed to the guns at his side and then he had flung the helmet on to his suit, clamped it down and was gone from the Spacasino like a flash. "Monk," the robot-extraordinary, tried in vain to match his madly-plunging steps. VI