"What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an answer, you remember."
"I'm going there to the Potomac—tell them that. Tell them we will come there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model."
As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside.
Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he opened it. I was close behind him.
"What——"
"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see—in case she is doing something."
He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him.
The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the instrument room.
We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of cave—flickering lights—a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly armed.
She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.