He motioned Vyers to additional caution as they approached the large doors that led from the eating room. There was a guard stationed outside this door. Little vigilance was exercised over the electrically drugged prisoners.
This was one thing Dirk was counting on.
He shoved the door open a cautious inch. The guard was not sleeping. He was pacing up and down before the door and he wheeled, swinging his gun up as it opened slightly.
"Who is it?" he snapped.
To close the door would be an invitation for him to throw the great bolt in place and sound an alarm. Dirk did the only other thing possible. He hurled the door wide open and lunged with the speed and ferocity of a tiger at the startled guard.
His furious driving lunge carried him to the guard's throat before the deadly atomic pistol could be brought into action. It was over then in an instant. Dirk's gnarled, powerful hands contracted like the segments of a vise, and the guard's eyes rolled desperately. With a final wrench Dirk stood up.
Vyers grabbed the corpse by the feet and dragged it into a shadow.
They were outside the prisoner's quarters now. The stockade fence faced them, high and impassable. The gate was heavily guarded with a half dozen armed guards.
But Dirk had been doing a little thinking.
"The side gate by the freight ramp," he snapped. "It's almost deserted now because there hasn't been a shipment in months. Let's try it."
It took them twenty minutes to skirt the fence and reach the side gate, but when they did a glance showed them their efforts had not been wasted. The gate was not guarded, and it was covered with tough, thick creepers that wound all the way to the top of the fence.
HAND over hand the two figures went up the twelve-foot gate. Stuck into Dirk's belt was the guard's atomic pistol. Its cold, heavy bulk was reassuring.
They dropped to the ground, crouched still for an instant to make sure their descent had gone unnoticed, then started off. They had circled half way around the stockade making for Skarack's office when Dirk stopped. He was standing in front of the dwelling where he had seen the blonde-haired girl. Motioning Vyers to wait he stepped to the door. What he was doing was wild and crazy but he couldn't stop himself.
The door was fastened from the inside. He hesitated for a brief fraction of a second, then moved his shoulder slowly, but inevitably against the door. If anybody else were inside, he decided simply, he would kill him.
For a while the door held, then a bolt shattered and Dirk slipped swiftly into the room.
"Don't scream," he said. "Please don't."
He couldn't see her, but he knew she was present. Her subtle, warm frarance was everywhere in the room, a part of it.
"W—who is it?" the question came from the opposite side of the room.
"Don't you remember?" he whispered. "I'm the fellow who said he'd be back. I always keep my word."
A sound like a sob came from the girl.
"Thank God," she said softly. "I thought you'd been killed long ago. But how are you here?" there was swift alarm in her voice.
"Escaped," Dirk said briefly.
