e moved the few steps into the small air-chamber which was the first of the three pressure locks. Its interior door-panel swung open for him. But the door did not close after him!
Cursing the duty-man's slowness, he waited a few seconds. Then he turned to the corridor. The duty-man came running.
Grantline took off his helmet. "What in hell—"
"Broken! Dead!"
"What!"
"Smashed from outside," gasped the duty-man. "Look there—my tubes—"
The control-tubes of the portes had flashed into a close-circuit and burned out. The admission portes would not open!
"And the pressure controls smashed! Broken from outside—!"
There was no way now of getting out through these pressure-locks. The doors, the entire pressure-lock system, was dead. Had it been tampered with from outside?