"It's the bat!" Flint said. "It's got them cornered! We've got to get out there!" Somehow, now, the thought of that thing reaching into the door, clawing at Karen Vaun, pressed back against the wall, made him forget all about his plans for capturing the bat, forget he was under arrest for kidnapping. "Let's go—I'll take you to them!"

"It's another of his tricks," one of the patrolmen said. "Trying to lead us into a trap of some kind."

"Listen, you stupid fools," Flint almost yelled, "don't you understand? That bat's out there. They haven't a rabbit's chance. We haven't got time to talk about it."

The big fellow winked at the others. "If it's a space bat," he said, "we'll need help. I'll call for some of the boys to go with us, with some bigger guns—for the bat or for any little ambush you might have planned."

And Flint saw he was only wasting time. He leaped forward and caught the man full in the face with his fist. The blow sprawled the patrolman backward against the controls. Before he could get up, Flint was on him again, struggling for his gun. If he could get out of here, get that police plane—

He got his hand on the gun. Twisted. But it had taken too long.

He felt the hard jab of one of the patrolmen's pistols against his back. "Get off him!"

Flint stepped back slowly, hands hanging limp, ready for the slightest opening. But it didn't come.

The big man got off the controls, holding his hand over a nose that was probably broken. "Put him in that air lock," he ordered. "Give him enough pressure to cave his ribs in!"

The inside door was open. Flint was shoved into the lock. The door clanged shut behind him.

Around the wall in the narrow air chamber was a line of tiny holes. From these came a shrill hissing like a nest of snakes. The pointer of the pressure gauge on the wall trembled, then slowly moved across the dial.

The chamber was six feet high, three feet wide. The air holes were near the ceiling beside Flint's ears. But he didn't stand there listening to the rising pressure. A moment ago, one of the patrolmen had passed through here. Immediately, he tried the other door, the one leading outside where the police ship was hooked on, but it was locked now.

The doors of a space-ship's safety chamber worked together. When one was locked, the other 

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