doors opened and Loesser and two other young Earthmen came out, wearily mopping their brows.

"We'll be back tomorrow, Jonny," Loesser called back into the building. "Ought to finish her up in a few days now."

The three strode wearily toward their ato-truck and drove away. The doors remained open for the moment.

Carlin stepped forward and from his vantage in the dark peered into the big lighted room. Jonny and Harb Land were putting back the metal cover on the central mechanism, before they too quit work.

One glance at the interior of that machine was enough for Carlin's trained eyes. Those big magnetic-current coils, that massive beam-head, that battery of Markheim filters—he had been right, they spelled disaster.

A small, hard object prodded Carlin's back and a voice throbbing with anger spoke in his ear.

"This is an atom-pistol. Raise your hands. I don't want to harm you."

"Marn!" he exclaimed, stunned.

"Don't turn!" warned the girl. Her voice was choked with wrath. "I heard you get up and I followed you out here. You are a spy!"

"Don't turn!" warned the girl. "I followed you here. You are a spy!"

Carlin was so stunned with horror by his discovery of the brothers' catastrophic plans, that he reacted by sheer, desperate impulse to the weapon in his back. He swung around and grabbed for the atom-pistol.

It would have been suicidal, had another than Marn been holding the weapon. But Marn, as much a stranger as he to deadly violence, let her finger hesitate on the trigger too long. Perhaps she would not have fired in any case. Pondering it later, he was not sure.

What happened was that he got his hand on the slim pistol and snatched it out of her grasp before her hesitation ended. Marn, her face white, called frantically:

"Harb! Jonny!"

The two brothers came running out from the rear of the lighted workshop, Harb's craggy face dark and deadly as he saw them.

Carlin jumped back, leveled the weapon he had just taken from the girl.

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