On Roal's side there was a small window, evidently for passing supplies from the storeroom to the laboratory. But it was at right angles to the doorway and did not look out upon the main part of the laboratory. Roal had avoided getting in line with the window, but he glanced towards it hoping to find a means of escape. Beyond the window was a polished wooden cabinet in which the lights of the room reflected. The cabinet door was half open and moving slowly with the motion of the air in the room. As Roal watched it idly he saw in its polished surface a distorted reflection of the laboratory. Suddenly, in the reflecting surface, he saw Sebours cautiously leave his place of hiding and warn the Martians to stand guard. Then he returned to the table where he had been working. The swinging door shifted the reflection out of Roal's vision, but in that instant he had seen something that turned him cold. On the table where Sebours was working lay a still form. A human body graced with a head of golden hair like none that Roal had ever seen. Except once-- Alayna. * * * * * He wished the door would swing back. But as if in confirmation of his identification a low cry of terror suddenly shot through the room. And it was Alayna's voice. Roal knew that he could never mistake it. He called to Shorty in a hoarse whisper. "They've got Alayna out there and that big ape is doing something to her. We've got to rush them." "We can't. They'd mow us down before we got out the door." "We can't let him maim her, either. I'm going out. Coming?" "Don't be a fool!" Shorty pleaded. "We've got to use our brains. You're no good to Alayna dead." "Yeah, you're right," Roal admitted. "What I just saw out there got me, but--if that window were only facing Sebours--" "We could burn a hole through the wall. That might be our best bet. You could nail him in the back--provided a Martian didn't poke a lance through and blast your hand off the minute you got it through." "Yeah, that wouldn't work." Alayna's scream came once more and her cry of, "Roal, Roal--" The sound quickened his pulses to maddening pace. So she had learned he was there. That polished door was swinging slowly again in the motion of the air. An inspiration seized Roal. Once he had seen an outlaw perform an incredible feat with a flame lance. If it could be done now-- It was dangerous, but he moved decisively to the window. It was the only way to save Alayna, a reflective shot from that wooden door panel. He cut the charge of the lance down to a minimum. It would be sure to burn through the wood, but enough of the searing energy might be reflected. It was one of the peculiarities of the flame lance beam that it could be reflected from a wooden surface at a low angle of incidence.