"So they couldn't quite kill you?" Art grinned down at the space pilot. "Weren't trying!" replied Denny briefly. "They seemed interested in the discoveries I'd made on Venus. Had the nicest ways of getting information; simple, too. All they had to do was touch my skin and I got a radium burn." "You must have passed out just after I used the ray on them," Klalmar-lan commented. "But how did they get you in the first place?" "Just slipped up behind us, showing a friendly signal, and slapped some kind of paralysis ray on us--went through the permirium hull and everything. They came aboard--but only took me off. The rest of the crew they left lying there, paralyzed. Then they just swung away a few miles and disintegrated the whole works. That was pretty tough to take--some of those boys had been to hell and back with me." "They paid for that massacre," growled Klalmar-lan. "But that was only one of their countless thousands, perhaps millions of ships. I believe that they have a huge base on Venus, from which they are preparing to swoop down on Earth when the Ghlak-Ileth are ready. We will have to locate that base. Then we will radio the Martian Fleet. We have half a million ships, armed with choker rays and disintegrators. Long have we prepared to seize the treasure of Venus, and at the same time revenge ourselves on our ancient enemy. Speaking for the Greater Ring," and he drew himself up proudly, "I can promise you that we will fight as fiercely to save your race from extinction, though there be no gain, if it will in some measure alleviate the great wrong we have done you in leaving you unwarned and unprepared." * * * * * "Thank you, Klalmar-lan," answered Denny simply. "However, I've got to warn you--there's something rotten on our side of it. Those _Things_ spoke English--and had a pretty fair knowledge of Earth science and Earth affairs." "Yes, we know where the rotten spot is located," replied Klalmar-lan. "He's been building up a machinery against us for some time, unknown to some of you who worked nearest him. Got away with several of our secrets, too--the force field, for one--" "The force field!" ejaculated Art. "That's how he got Haight! Remember that night, Elene?" "Of course," she cried. "Haight had found the secret of the Ghlak-Ileth and their high radium content." "Yes," agreed Klalmar-lan, "and that secret Dr. Theller knew he must suppress at all costs. The force field he no doubt projected as a beam through some hidden port in the laboratory roof. Playing it about like an invisible searchlight, he met the incoming flier with a barrier as effective as a stone wall."