was so crazy I should take off my helmet for an examination."

"I escaped from Palmer, went back to the Comet, then raced out of the ship to save Jean from a beating." He shook his head slightly when he saw the pain on Palmer's face. "Of course it was just a trick to get me outside without my helmet. Well, I fell for it; and the slugs took control, making me believe that Jim Palmer was the master mind engineering everything. But on entering the Comet, I slipped and fell beneath the ship's gravity-rotor. The field of gravity-energy neutralized the electricity of the thought waves—just as it blanks out the power of a flashlight—and I was able to think again. I blasted the slugs, got two portable rotors and fastened them to Palmer and myself, and the two of us cleaned out the slugs."

Don Denton flicked his gaze about the room. "Now, if you men intend to stay, you've got to wear tiny gravity-rotors on your heads. It apparently isn't the quantity of power put out that blankets the thought waves, it's possible to use a very weak power. I don't think the slugs will try anything again, but if they do, you shouldn't have any trouble getting rid of them."

"We're staying on," Jim Palmer said grimly, nodded approvingly at the confident glances given him by his men. "And I hope those damned things show up again. I'd like nothing better than to take an ati-blaster to a bunch of those uncanny devils."

He grinned suddenly, looked squarely into Don Denton's eyes.

"How about staying on for awhile?" he asked, "There might be a little excitement on this planet that you could dig up?"

Don Denton shook his head. "Sorry," he said, "but I've got a date with some friends of mine on Mars; we're going to explore some of the new tombs they discovered two months ago. I guess I'll be getting along."

He felt the insistent tugging of Jean's slender fingers on his. A smile lifted the corners of his lips, and he bent over, kissed her with a quick possessiveness.

"My mistake," he said warmly, "we'll be getting along!"

He and Jean were smiling into each other's eyes then, reading there a future that held many promises of adventure and love and—and things that would be utterly nothing to others than themselves.

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