CHAPTER XVI

_Frank's Plan_

This door, like the other, resisted our efforts, to smash it. Alt ran to get the bar.

We called, "Dianne!"

She did not answer. With my ear against the door, it seemed that I could hear a movement inside.

"Dianne! If you can speak, answer me!"

I thought I could hear a low, gruff murmur. I demanded, "Togaro! Open the door!"

No answer.

Drake shouted, "Damn it, we'll break it down! Here, give me that bar!"

We assaulted the door. In the silence between our blows, Togaro's mocking laugh sounded again. It chilled me; horrible, sardonic, confident laughter.

The door began yielding. I warned, "Drake, your automatic."

He handed the bar to Alt and the two men of the ship's crew who had joined us. Ahlma, white and trembling, but eager, stood among us. Drake swept her behind him. He and I stood with weapons ready.

"Now, Alt."

With a last blow the door fell inward. From where we crowded in the passage the front portion of the little cabin was exposed. The huge legs of Togaro were bent like a jackknife as he sat wedged in the room! We could see at first only the lower half of him.

Drake jumped into the doorway; his weapon went up. Togaro's voice sounded--a dull gruff roar.

"Wait, you fool! Do not kill me!"

It checked, for that instant, the shot that Drake might have fired. I was beside Drake now. The whole interior of the cabin was filled with the huge body of Togaro. He sat sidewise to the door. The knees of his bent legs were nearly as high as our heads. His back was jammed against the stateroom bunk; his head as he sat hunched forward, crowded the ceiling. His body was wedged solid into the little room.

And upon his lap, held against his chest, Dianne was standing upright. Her head came hardly to his bent shoulders. His arm encircled her.

The scene froze us for an instant. The giant, evil face of Togaro, above Dianne's head, leered down at us.

He said, "Do not kill me! Do not dare! Dianne, tell them to talk to me--not to shoot."

I met Dianne's gaze. Her size in relation to me, was about normal. Her face was pale, but she seemed unhurt. She gasped.

"Frank--Drake--don't try to kill him--you don't understand--"

Why not kill him? He was holding Dianne in front of him--but from where I stood I could have sent a bullet into his brain and not endangered Dianne.

Or would his death throes have crushed her? I did not dare fire, yet. Drake felt the same. He lowered his weapon; he pushed mine down.

"Wait a minute, Frank. Easy."

Togaro's smile widened. His broad, heavy face had a look of monstrous evil. He said, "Why, that is better. Now we will talk."

"What do you want to say?" Drake demanded. "Let Dianne go. Dianne, climb down--"

It brought a gibe. "How can she climb down?"

I said, "We've got you. I can put a bullet into your head in a second. Do you know what a bullet is?"

"I know. Yes, young man, I know very well. But you won't do that. Quiet, Dianne--stand quiet, I am not hurting you."

His tone changed wholly as he admonished her. Ironic, to me; gentle, solicitous, and yet ironic also, to her.

I threatened, "But I will! We'll give you one minute!"

Drake pushed me back. "What have you got to say, Togaro? You're caught. You can't get smaller--we can kill you in an instant with these deadly weapons. You can't hurt us."

He was indeed so wedged into the cabin that he could scarcely move. But Drake was making empty threats. Togaro interrupted him calmly, "Can't hurt you! But you cannot kill me so fast that I will not also kill Dianne. Crush her to death; here in my arms. Quiet, sweet one, I am not crushing you--yet."

We saw now that Togaro's hand held a pellet of the drug, a pellet expanded to the size of a marble. He showed it to us.

"The enlarging drug. I think I can get it into my mouth, Drake, before you can kill me. It will be effective ten minutes at least after my death. Did you know that? Ten minutes of my body growing, here in this small room--"

He left the sentence to our imagination. Across his huge lap the cabin window was visible. Outside it I could glimpse the black void of space--a dull-red crescent hung out there, with white stars blazing around it.

Our ship was here in space. A growth of Togaro's body, and he would burst the roof of this cabin and wreck the ship.

Drake stammered, "But you--you would not dare--"

"Nor would you," Togaro returned calmly. "You do not want me to crush Dianne. Or break this tiny ship and kill us all. I do not want it. Fear nothing, I am no more anxious to die than you. There is of it nothing for you to fear. I would not like to hurt my little Dianne." His hand encompassed the span of her shoulder and back with a gesture like a caress.

We knew we were defeated. Drake said, "Yes. What do you want?"

"Go now and tell them in the control room to land as soon as possible. That is simple."

Drake turned away. "You watch here, Frank. Keep him covered."

I stood, a few moments later, in the passage whispering with Drake. We had an hour of grace. Togaro, from the window beside him, could see our progress toward landing. We did not dare do anything else with the ship.

But there was an hour. And I had a plan. Desperate; to me, with my inexperience in these strange conditions, it was a plan incredibly awesome. Yet I could think of nothing else which might be done. A plan by which I might rescue Dianne and kill Togaro.

I whispered it to Drake.

He said at last, "Yes, I guess it's the only thing. You think I should go with you? Two of us--"

"No. The chances are better with one."

"Then I will try it," he said. But I shook my head.

We stood out of Togaro's sight and hearing. Ahlma was with us.

Ahlma said, "But, Frank, you are not used to it. If you would trust it to a girl--"

But that was not feasible. Drake would have been better than I, no doubt.

"If I do not come back," I urged, "you, Drake, are needed here. And when the ship lands--it is you who are needed, not I."

It seemed the best thing to do. I had an hour before the landing. And I was ready now. I needed no preparations. I wore my belt of the drugs; I carried a knife like a short sword.

I edged up as close to the doorway of Togaro's cabin as I could get without his seeing me.

I took the diminishing drug.