"Pretty sure. I met him once in Atom City at a scientific meeting. He was making a speech with a Professor Sykes."
"That's right," said Connel, hearing the remark. "I was there."
"Do you remember meeting a man from Venus wearing a long red robe?" asked the high-pitched voice.
Connel hesitated. "No," he said. "I only remember talking to three men. Two were from Venus and one was from Mars. But neither of the two from Venus wore a red robe. They wore purple—"
"He's right," acknowledged the voice. "This is Connel."
"Open your eyes," said the first voice.
Connel and Tom opened their eyes and in the light of a small hand torch they saw two gaunt faces before them. The tallest of the men stuck out a bony hand. "My name is Carson." They recognized his voice as the one that had spoken first. "And this is Bill Jensen," he added.
"This is Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," said Connel. He glanced around the room, and in the weak reflected light of the torch, saw almost fifty men crouched against the walls, each of them holding a crude weapon.
"You'll understand our caution, Major," said Carson. "Once before we had a plan to escape and a spy was sent in. As you see, we didn't escape."
"Neither did the spy," commented Jensen grimly.