forgot myself," admitted the young man sheepishly. "I sort of owe you an apology, Miss."

"You ought to be jailed," stormed Marshall uncertainly, rising partly to his feet. His big visitor did not cringe.

"You're big and strong," scoffed young Rufus scornfully. "And all puffed up with your own importance. Like a robber baron! Lots of power in your hands, and worlds to tremble at your decisions, but there's some things you're weak at. One thing—"

He looked suggestively at the limp little being in the wheel chair, so pallid and impassive. Her handling of the gun had been almost mechanical and quite without feeling. Marshall swayed, and young Rufus knew he had struck a vital spot.

"Thallin, I'll kill you for that!" he promised brokenly.

"She's your daughter, isn't she?" demanded the blond giant ruthlessly. "And a year ago she was queen of the interplanetary cafés. The doctors that attend her say she'll die in six months. What will you give for her life, Marshall?"

Falling back loosely into the seat, Keith Randolph Marshall began to quiver in every muscle of his body. Because he knew by the other's manner that he was serious.

"I've studied all the tricks of modern medicine," continued Rufus goadingly, "and know all the late practices and kinks. I'm not such a fool at that as I may be at running spacelines in the void!"

"I'll tell you," whispered Marshall savagely, his soul bare for the other's gaze. "And I'll tell you the truth! I'd give every cent I ever owned if she were sound and well. I'd give every space-ship I've got if she had the vitality of your oxlike body."

Whirling around, young Rufus pounced without warning, snapped up the flame-gun from the girl's lap, and held it before him. Then he began to rock with wild bursts of laughter.

"There's only one chance for her," he chuckled. "It's a cure most doctors, even now, are afraid to speak much about. But I've seen it happen. Out in space, a person's body is permeated with lots of solar rays you never get on Earth. Sometimes unhealthy tissue will heal like magic. The chances are slim, one in a hundred, but they're better than nothing."

Now Marshall's eyes were glazing with horror, and he seemed too paralyzed to move. The other's mockery drove him frantic.

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