the only chance for any of us."
DIRK started in amazement as the voice reached him clearly. For it was a feminine voice, throaty and soft, but charged with terrible earnestness and fear. He stepped closer and saw a pale, delicately chiseled face turned toward him, and two dark eyes meeting his imploringly.
"What the devil!" he said explosively.
"Please be careful," the girl whispered frantically. "One of the guards might hear you."
"Somebody's going to hear from me," Dirk said grimly. "The idea of keeping a lovely girl like you worried and scared. What's wrong, anyway?"
"There's no time for that," the girl said breathlessly. "Just get away from here. Now. This instant. Send help back if you can."
"If you want to leave," Dirk said decisively. "I'll take you with me. I'll see that nobody shoves you around. I'm going to give the big slob that runs this joint a piece of my mind as it is."
"Please!" the girl's voice was desperate. "Don't go near him. Get away while you can."
"I wish you'd tell me what's up?" Dirk said.
"There's not time," the girl said desperately.
Dirk stepped closer to the girl. He noticed that she had light blonde hair, a big mop of it shoved back from her high, pale forehead. He could smell its subtle perfume on the dark air of the night.
"Don't worry," he said. His hand closed reassuringly over her small fingers. "When I'm ready to go I'll go. And I'll take you with me."
"Maybe!" a harsh voice snapped behind him.
Dirk wheeled, but a hard object jammed into his ribs.
"Behave," the owner of the voice said ominously. Dirk saw that it was the stocky, broken-nosed fellow called Buck who had surprised him.
"If this is your idea of a joke," he said angrily. "I don't like it. Take me to the person in charge of this place."
The atomic revolver jammed into his ribs.
"That's just what I was goin' to do."
The girl was looking at Dirk, a dull hopelessness in her eyes.
"Don't worry," he said confidently. "I'll have this whole business straightened out in a few seconds. Then I'll be back."
"This way," Buck snapped.
Dirk followed the man across the clearing to one of the larger rooms in which a light was burning. Buck opened the door and allowed Dirk to enter first.
Seated at a desk in the middle of the sparsely furnished room was the big man whom Dirk had seen on arriving.
"Found him talking to the girl," Buck explained. "From the looks of it she'd been singing. I guess he also saw the men leaving for work."
"That's too bad," the man behind the desk said cryptically.
"I demand to know what's going on here," Dirk blazed. "Who has been intimidating that young girl? What are all these men doing out here? There's something here that smells and I'm going to report it to the Federation the minute I get back."
"No," the big man said softly, "you aren't going to do any such thing. Because you aren't going back. Ever."
"ARE you crazy?" Dirk shouted.
The big man shook his head.
"I don't think so. I did intend to fix your ship up and let you leave. Be-
