Moore cocked his head to one side. "Running water," he remarked. "They haven't got a river down--" A scream, faint and far away, took his breath away. Another sounded, and then a chorus, dimmed by space and the stone walls. Suddenly Ross and Moore whirled to face one another. "Artana!" cried Ross. "He's opened the reservoirs!" gasped Moore. They leaped to their feet. Ross tried the door, savagely. Moore broke the skin of his hands on the stout stone bars of the window. In a moment, water was swirling at their feet. Moore stared down at it gloomily. "I was two days on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic," he sighed, "and I didn't drown." The water rose to their knees. V Ross tugged at the door. "You aren't drowned yet. How did this door open?" "From the outside," grumbled Moore, tugging with his chief. "It rolled--ha! It's opening! We've got it!" The door was sliding open. A rush of water swept them half off balance, and they splashed into the flood when the Princess Illeria catapulted into them. "Princess!" yelled Moore. "Good girl!" Ross gripped her arm. "What's going on?" "Panic," she panted, clinging to him. "Horta and his steadiest men are at the ray machine, fighting to keep the water out of the ray reservoir. The Queen went with him. I'm--afraid--" "Cheer up," Ross consoled her. "And let's get out of this." He led the way out of the cell. Water was waist deep in the corridor. Ross pointed up an incline, where the swirling waters ran thinly. "Looks good," he suggested. He whirled then on Illeria. "Where do you suppose we could get some guns?" "What good would they do?" growled Moore. "There's that ray machine," Ross reminded him. "Oh! Yes. But--" Moore shot a glance at the Princess. "Don't forget--the Queen--" Ross scowled. "I know." Illeria touched his arm. "If the Queen must die, that the Moon people and the Earth folk may be saved, let it be so," she urged simply. The two men bit their lips. "Come!" urged the girl. "There is a guardroom above. There must be weapons." "I could use one of those antique hook-'em swords on old Horta," growled Moore. They burst into the guardroom prepared for sudden and violent action. But the great chamber was empty of Moon men. On the walls hung ray rifles. Ross and Moore each snatched one. "Now where?" asked Moore. Ross surveyed the room. Windowed on all sides, it had only two doors, the one they had entered and another opposite. "We'll try that," Ross decided. "What we've got to find now is a spot that commands the square where the ray machine is bedded." The sloping corridor led them to such a spot. On a balcony they stood and for a moment were content to watch Horta's artisans toiling with sandbags and debris to make barricades against the flood. "They'll do it, too," Moore said aloud, voicing his chief's thought. "Artana's trick was probably just to help us out," Ross judged. "He hadn't enough water to flood 'em out."