"I am not altogether sure. I saw the Slumberers but once, and then for a short time. It is not easy to recognize them under these conditions. But there is one face I have not forgotten. I see it not here now. A human tall as myself ... with close-cropped hair of yellow, pale blue eyes, heavy jaw and thick lips...."
Amarro started. "What, my Lord? Say you that one is a Slumberer? He is not here."
"Not here?" cried Steve in swift alarm. "Then where is he?"
"He is back at our headquarters," explained the guard, "undergoing hospitalization. He was wounded when brought from Earth, and could do no work. His mind was affected so he knew not where he was, nor whom. He begins to show signs of recovery now, though—"
A swift pang of fear coursed through Stephen Duane. So far he and his comrades had been fortunate. Von Rath's amnesia was the only reason Chuck still lived and he, Duane, trod the soil of Daan freely. But if von Rath recovered, it would be but a matter of time before....
His voice lifted sharply, excitedly.
"I must see him at once, Amarro. Take us back to headquarters immediately—"
His very excitement was his undoing. For his voice carried clearly across the ground which separated him from his former comrades. At the sound of that voice one slim and dust-gold figure thrust forward suddenly, and a heart-stoppingly familiar voice cried,
"Steve! O Dwain! O Slumberer—thou hast come at last to free us!"
Then everything happened at once. Chuck Lafferty's eyes widened in belated recognition, and he moved in swifter comprehension of the evil Beth had unwittingly done; leaped to the girl's side and clamped a stifling hand over her lips.