"Quick, Anderson!" he shouted. "Make sure all the women are inside! Then close the hatch and clamp it tight! Girls! Climb into your hammocks instantly!"
As he was strapping himself into the control seat, he glanced through the observation ports. What he saw put extra speed into his fumbling fingers.
Already the natives of Callisto were rushing back to the Goddard. Apparently the tremors of the dying tentacle had told them that they had been outwitted. Although they were still nearly a mile away, they were racing along at such a rapid speed that their arrival was only a matter of minutes. On they came—thousands of them. Even at a distance, LeDoux could sense the menace of their furious features and their threatening movements.
Nevertheless, LeDoux made sure that all the women were safe in their hammocks before he snapped on the gravity-nullifier and sent the Goddard rocketing through Callisto's stratosphere.
CHAPTER VI
An Amazing Revelation
Three days later, Captain Verger recovered consciousness. His head heavily bandaged, he was lying on a cot in a small white-walled room. The sickening odor of ether was in the air. Bending over him, he was surprised to see the kindly features of Professor Anderson.
"Where am I? What happened?" he asked tritely.
"You're in the Interplanetary Mining Company's hospital on Ganymede," Anderson told him. "I suppose you recall what happened to you on Callisto."