"Don't let them take me, please!" Angelina was on her feet now, her back pressed to the wall. "They'll put me in prison, do things to my mind!" She shrunk away as she spoke, stumbling along the wall. I looked back at Pepe, not wanting to have my eyes off him for an instant. "There's nothing I can do," I told her. I glanced her way and a small door was swinging open and she was gone. "Don't try to run," I shouted after her, "it can't do any good!" Pepe made a strangling noise and I looked back to him quickly. He was sitting up now and his face was dry of tears. In fact he was laughing, not crying. "So she caught you, too, Mr. Wise-cop, poor little Angelina with the soft eyes." He broke down again, shaking with laughter. "What do you mean," I growled. "Don't you catch yet? The story she told you was true--except she twisted it around a bit. The whole plan, building the battleship, then stealing it, was _hers_. She pulled me into it, played me like an accordion. I fell in love with her, hating myself and happy at the same time. Well--I'm glad now it's over. At least I gave her a chance to get away, I owe her that much. Though I thought I would explode when she went into that innocence act!" The cold feeling was now a ball of ice that threatened to paralyze me. "You're lying," I said hoarsely, and even I didn't believe it. "Sorry. That's the way it is. Your brain-boys will pick my skull to pieces and find out the truth anyway. There's no point in lying now." "We'll search the ship, she can't hide for long." "She won't have to," Pepe said. "There's a fast scout we picked up, stowed in one of the holds. That must be it leaving now." We could feel the vibration, distantly through the floor. "The Navy will get her," I told him, with far more conviction than I felt. "Maybe," he said, suddenly slumped and tired, no longer laughing. "Maybe they will. But I gave her her chance. It is all over for me now, but she knows that I loved her to the end." He bared his teeth in sudden pain. "Not that she will care in the slightest." I kept the gun on him and neither of us moved while the Navy ships pulled up and their boots stamped outside. I had captured my battleship and the raids were over. And I couldn't be blamed if the girl had slipped away. If she evaded the Navy ships, that was their fault, not mine. I had my victory all right. But I wasn't too happy about it. I had a premonition that I wasn't finished with Angelina yet. viii