Spelford lifted his weapon and nodded in the direction they were to go. The prisoners went, under the guard of several armed men. They were taken to a room set up to accommodate up to twenty passengers. There were niches with beds in them, and couches for use during acceleration. “Prepare for lift-off,” ordered Spelford. The prisoners sat down and strapped themselves in. Spelford and his men left, locking the door behind them. In a moment the warning signal for lift-off was given. The ship raised itself gently from the surface of the asteroid. The fierce glare of destructive laser strikes came through the quartz window for nearly a minute, and the prisoners knew that the living quarters of Z25 were being systematically destroyed. “They’re ramsquaddling the whole operation,” said Sabbath George in a voice that sounded almost matter-of-fact. “Never had anything like this happen before. This is a first.” When the glow ceased, the ships accelerated. The Starmen and their companions felt themselves pressed into the chairs. * * * * * The five invisible ships had been gone for over an hour, but the man in the shadow still did not move. He was on a neighboring chunk of floating iron, just a mile or two in diameter with a very slow rotation. St. George’s asteroid would vanish below his horizon in a few minutes. The man pulled the telescope up to his face plate once again and scanned the area that had been the base on Z25. There had been no movement of any kind since the ships had rayed the site. He took a few more pictures for his files. The metal and quartz plating--all signs of human presence--had been completely destroyed, melted into the rock of the asteroid. The brilliant orange of superheated rock had quickly cooled in the near-absolute zero of airless space. “Guess it’s okay to go now,” he thought. “Those space buzzards are not detail men--just grab and destroy without even looking around. Lucky for me.” The man went over to a small asteroid cruiser, built for speed in touring the Asteroid Belt. Stepping in, he sealed the airlock and pulled out a small recorder. He tuned in a complicated code and began to speak. “Steve Cliff, reporting in to Oritz Konig on Mars Base.” Steve went on to give the date, time, and location, and a brief but thorough report of what he had seen, from the time the Starmen landed on Z25 to the time the pirates’ five ships had disappeared. He added to the file the pictures he had taken, and concluded, “Now returning to Yellow City. If you have anything else you’d like me to do, Oritz, contact me there. I don’t have to tell you I’m pretty fond o’ those boys and I was more’n delighted to keep an eye on ’em for you on this trip. Sorry this report isn’t any better. I’ll stop in and see Sim before I continue my trip back to Earth, just in case you leave a message for me there.”