None of them spoke to him as he joined their ranks.

He moved along down into the shaft with them. A fantastic underground world opened before his eyes.

Great lights overhead cast illumination on the scene. Buildings reared up ten, fifteen, twenty stories; massive machines pumped pistons back and forth, booming noisily. It was a gigantic base, a center for the conquest of the universe.

And somewhere in the heart of all this—somewhere was Andsu Meero and the mindless body of Bette Bauer. If Meero had the chance to restore the girl's mind and drain from her the secret of the annihilating ray—

But he didn't want to think about that. He kept going with the group of workers he had fallen in with, and found that they were marching toward a squat, windowless building that was the center of a good deal of activity.

The Vegans he was with were silent men, dark-faced and taciturn, and he was thankful for that. There was none of the genial camaraderie that might have been present between a bunch of Earthmen in a similar position. He followed them into the building, and discovered that it was a tool dispensary of some kind. Each man was marching up to a closet and taking forth something that looked like a large, heavy brush.

Jim dropped back toward the end of the line and chewed at his lip. No doubt the tools would be apportioned one for each man in the squad, which meant they would be short one. And he didn't want the men he was with to suspect anything; he wanted to stay with them at least until he had formulated a more definite plan of action.

He lingered at the back of the line, looking around. There was no one behind him. He reached out for the man just in front of him and whacked him across the throat with the edge of his hand.

The man coughed and retched, and Lawrence clamped a hand over his mouth to silence him. Another quick blow and the Vegan dropped. Quietly, Lawrence dragged him away and deposited him in a closet nearby.

Then he returned to the line. Now there would be one broom for each man, no more.

When everyone was supplied, they marched solemnly back out the door of the supply-room. Obediently, Lawrence followed along. No one seemed to notice that a man was missing or that there was a stranger in the group.

They marched to the middle of the plaza, and there the 

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