"Dennis ... Dennis, my dear!" Framed in the wicket, the lovely features of Marla, smiling despite the brimming eyes, smiling at him in encouragement. His heart leapt upwards as if it would leave his body, as he rose in a single bound and was at the wicket, kissing hungrily the exquisite lips. He could not speak, for seconds, that Marla was alive was that his heart could wish. For a moment he was weak with the tremendous reaction. "You're safe ... safe ... not hurt ... Marla," he was incoherently repeating. "Quick," Marla cautioned. "Take this!" She slipped a deadly atom-blast, the smaller variety once carried by women into his hand. "They never found it on me--being a woman I have prerogatives. I have been held for ransom until now, and here on this deserted world, having no means of escape I was allowed comparative freedom within the ship. But I heard what you told Koerber, Dennis. Now that he knows untold wealth is within reach of his hand, he may have another fate in store for me. For the past few days he has been changing ... becoming amorous. I know he's trying to win me, Dennis ... as only a woman can know!" "Take this blaster back ... and use it!" Dennis said fiercely. "No need," she smiled, her eyes luminous. "I have a better way. I'll not be harmed, Dennis." She kissed him as if all her heart were in that kiss, despite the vertical bars that divided them, then she was gone, leaving behind the faint fragrance that she always wore, like a scent in the garden ways, or an echo in the wind. One last card remained to him. One last venture wherein his life would hang from so slender a thread, and yet. He began to scream and shout with a passion that raised reverberating echoes in the enclosing metal cell. Almost immediately the metal door opened with a bang, and the powerful figure of Koerber flanked by guards with drawn atom-blasts was silhouetted in the light. "Have you gone space-crazy, you rat?" Koerber growled through clenched teeth. "What's the racket for?" "You double-crosser," Dennis spat like an animal at bay, "if I have to be caged like this, after telling you about my discovery, at least you could let me have some air. You've got the air rectifiers shut off in here, and it's worse than in the caves! Want me to choke?" "Haw!" One of the guards guffawed. "That's real good, boss ... saves us the trouble of shooting 'im!" "Shut up!" Koerber rumbled. "Double-crosser, eh? What made you think I'd cut you in on the discovery? But you've given me an idea! Branche ... Jennings! Truss him up and carry him out to the cave. The radio-active minerals'll take care of him better'n anything else." His sadistic nature gloated on the thought of Dennis' gradual disintegration as the powerful radio-active vibrations bombarded his being.