to out-moded rocket pushers, and I graduated with anti-gravity wings. He always was hard-headed!"

With two clattering steps young Rufus stalked forward and slammed fists down on the desk before Marshall.

"Listen, Marshall!" he snorted. "I know all about that! Don't go over that and rub it in. What do you think I've been doing at California Astro-Tech? I've studied up some good stuff that will make your gravity wings look like rowboats. I've got a propulsion system that will knock weeks off the regular schedule. All I need is a try! I'm asking that you give me a few months' time. With that new drive in performance I'll raise money and pay you back."

In another few minutes this young devil would be on his knees, promising anything, even his soul.

"Too bad, Thallin," said the astral magnate with cold satisfaction. "Can't do a thing for you. We're not flying kites! You played and lost. Take it like a man. If you've really got something good, and can put on a demonstration, I'll handle it at a profit for you—"

He wasn't prepared for the next move. The blonde caller of Nordic dimensions seemed to leap over his desk. One big hand grabbed the lighted cigar and ground it to shreds. The other seized his shirt front.

"You'd like it that way!" he challenged. "Then I'd be penniless, and you could make an easy steal! Nothing doing. I'm not out of the game yet. If I thought I was I'd grab your spindly old neck in my hands and wring it, right now. We'd both go out in grand style."

Sweat popped out on Marshall's forehead. It was hard to tell just how far the young jackanapes would go. Then the wheel chair lurched forward.

"Get back, Thallin," commanded Marshall as a frail hand thrust a flame gun at his caller's middle. "Or I'll tell Alyce to sear you. You're going a little too far with your threats!"

Rufus glanced at the muzzle of the electronic gun, flushed and backed away. The girl, already panting with the exhaustion brought on by excitement and the scant action, let the weapon fall back into her lap. It was hard to think of this shadow of a woman as that young and beautiful society débutante whose pictures had been plastered over all the pleasure bars from Mercury to Pluto. Venus plague strikes without mercy! In less than a year she was but a ghost of that former self.

"Guess I kind of 

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