eside Pedro. They had been master and servant
but in the old days they had come up out of Mexico together, guarding a
treasure. Ulnar moved to the wall, took down a heavy battle axe that
hung there. "Time come for me," he said. "Me go meet men as my chief
went to meet Cortez!" His eyes glinted.

"Wait!" Rozeno called. The priest was on his feet. "I have resolved the
conflict in my soul. There comes a time when men, even good men, must
fight against the forces of evil." From the wall he took a spear.

"I'll go with you two," Parker said. "In just a moment." From his
jacket, he took one of the two pistols. Silently he passed it to Effra.
"As a last resort, use it."

"But, Bill, there is still time--"

Parker didn't hear her. He was moving with Rozeno and Ulnar through
another opening. "At least," Rozeno was saying. "We have this advantage.
We know our way around here."

They moved silently, by side passages, through the rooms. "Find Retch,"
Parker whispered over and over again. "He's the heart and the core of
this business. With him out of the way, we can handle the others."

"Do you see anybody, Pfluger?" Retch's voice came from somewhere.

"Naw. I think I got the old gink but he ducked out of sight somewhere."

"Retch is on the other side of the corridor," Rozeno whispered. "The man
who spoke last is in the next room."

They slipped to the opening, peering into the next room. A man in there
was crouching against the wall and watching the opening into the
corridor. At the sight of the man, Ulnar went berserk. This was the man
who had killed Pedro.

A shrill battle cry pealing from his lips, massive axe uplifted, Ulnar
charged through the door.

The crouching man whirled. Smoke and thunder rolled from the gun in his
hand. Ulnar had taken death wounds before he was halfway across the
room. But death wounds or not, he kept going.

The heavy axe came down on the head of the man who was desperately
trying to fend it off. The man went down. For an instant, Ulnar's
battle cry of triumph, wild and savage and fierce, roared through the
honeycomb of passages, then went into silence with Ulnar, forever.

"Hey, Pfluger, what the hell happened?" Retch's startled voice came.

"We've got to cross the corridor to get at him," Parker whispered. "And
there are other men in here somewhere."

"Listen!" Rozeno whispered.

Voices, a babble of sound, were coming from behind them.

"The men from the village," Rozeno whispere