'You think you can keep them even now, with my pistol covering you?" Lalla Dee said incredulously. "You're mad!"
Kark Al chuckled. "Your ridiculous beam-pistols! Do you think such toys are of any use when you are fighting me, Nald Arkol?"
"Nald Arkol of Mars!" Crane's exclamation of amazement was echoed by the astonishment of the girl's widened eyes, as they both stared at the withered little red man.
* * *
For they knew that they stood face to face with the most mysterious and dreaded interplanetary spy in the whole Solar System — the head of the great Martian Secret Service, the ice-hearted super-spy whom no man had ever seen but about whom every secret service man had heard terrible legends.
The little Kark Al was glittering at them amusedly.
"I see that you, have heard of me," he said. "Do you still think a stupid beam-gun is enough to fight me?"
He laughed harshly.
"No. It is time to end this little comedy. Seize them, Thoh!"
In answer to his shrill order there rose suddenly out of the wooden crate beside the table, a squat, horrible figure. It was human in shape and wore grotesquely the clothes of a man. But it was not human. It was a metal robot! A mechanical man!