CHAPTER IX

_Paralyzed!_ The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving. Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage, struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me, Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was glowing red in his hand from intense heat. Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly: "We're trapped! _You_, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape." The r…