The Angel in the House

o

ell whose walls and ceiling were of some burnished brown metal and which was bare of any kind of furnishing. In one wall was a tightly closed door, also o

reach the giant negro, for, as he watched, the man's eyelids flickered, and a sigh escaped his full lips. He stared up at

elief. His eyes rolled as he took in the cabinlike cell. "Hmff-nice

we have searched so long for-Ku Sui

the mysteries that enveloped him. Half a dozen times had the Hawk and his comrade in arms, Eliot Leithgow, hunted for it with all their separ

erse-a fear engendered chiefly by the man's unpredictable comings and goings, thanks to his secret hiding place. Those who were as close to him as henchmen could be-which was not very close-only adde

why, on hearing the Hawk's opin

e're finished, suh,

und, as he of course expected, that it w

I suspect, this cell is part of Dr. Ku's real headquarters-and surely before he decides to eliminate us we w

ial Friday; he seldom had the opportunity for

against Ku Sui now, when we're prisoners? Why, he's a magician; it ain't natural, what he does. Lands in our ship plop right out of empty

g into our ship, he entered from behind, through the after port-lock, while we were looking for his ship on the visi-screen. I don't understand yet why we could not see his craft. It's too much to suppose he could make it invisible. Paint, perhaps, or camouflage.

ng from his lips, puzzled him, brought real anxiety. Torture would probably not be able to force his tongue to betray his friend, but there were perhaps other means. Of these he had a vague and

Leithgow where he would be, and he remembered well the place agre

er figures, their yellow coolie faces strangely dumb and lifeless above the tasteful gray smocks which extended a little below thei

disturb you, however; they are more robots than men, obeying only my words. A little adjustment of the brain, you understand.

ection!" sneered Friday, with devastating sar

eyes caught him full. It was with a physical shock-such was

re of having you for my guest. But perhaps-may I suggest?-that you save your humor for a more su

his, my home in space, would intrigue you more than anything els

awk replied frostily. "I will d

til Friday and the Hawk passed first through the door.

He stopped in front of one of the doors and pressed a button beside it. It slid noiselessly open, revealing, not another room, but a short metal spider ladder

ly off guard. Friday gasped, and Carse so far

a great gl

ldings of the familiar burnished metal. And overhead, cupping the entire outlay, arched a great hemisphere of what resembled glass

es of Satellites II and III wheeling close, and all of them were of th

the puzzlement that showed o

t in space where we had our rendezvous? But this isn't another of Jupiter's sate

the whites of his eyes showing all aro

like a peanut shell. One end had been leveled off to accommodate the dome with its cradled buildings; outside the dome all was untouched. The landscape was a gargantuan jumble of coarse, hard, sharp rocks which had crystallized into a maze of hollows, crevices, long crazy s

constructed on it, and these buildings inside the dome. Then, with batteries of gravity-plates inserted precisely in the asteroid's center of gravity, I nullified the gravital pull of Mars and Jupiter, wrenched it from its age-old orbit and sw

s too busy to make comment. He was observing the buildings, the nat

great plus mark. The hub was probably Dr. Ku's chief laboratory, Carse conjectured. On each side stood other buildings, low, long, like barracks, wi

on each side, each sizable enough to admit the largest space-ship

avail you nothing even if you reached her, for it requires a secret combination to open the port-locks, and my servants' brains have been so altered that they are physical

, there's something far more interesting, and it concerns you, Carse, and me, and al

sed close behind. But a tattoo of alarm was beating in Hawk Carse's brain. Eliot Leithgow again-the hint of something ominous to be a