no light at all. Thick, tangible dark blocked
the passage. It swallowed light.

Just inside, the mine gallery was too wide for easy defense. Further
back, there was a narrowing.

* * * * *

Denver seized on the possibilities for barricading and set to work,
despite numbed and weary muscles. Walking on the Moon is tiring for
muscles acquired on worlds of greater gravity. He was near exhaustion,
but the stimulus of fear is strong. He worked like a maniac, hauling
materials for blockade, carrying the smaller ingredients and rolling
or dragging the heavier. A brief interval of rest brought Darbor to
his side. She worked with him and helped with the heavier items.
Fortunately, the faint gravity eased their task, speeded it.

For pursuit had not lagged. Their trail had been found and followed.

From behind his barricade, Denver picked off the first two hired thugs
of the advance guard as they toiled upward, too eagerly impatient for
caution. A network of hastily-aimed beams of heat licked up from
several angles of the slope, but none touched the barricade. The
slope, which flattened just outside the entrance made exact shooting
difficult, made a direct hit on the barricade almost impossible,
unless one stood practically inside the carved entrance-way. Denver
inched to the door and fired.

The battle was tedious, involved, but a stalemate. Lying on his belly,
Denver wormed as close as he dared to the break of slope outside the
door. There, he fired snap shots at everything that moved on the
slopes. Everything that moved on the slopes made a point of returning
the gesture. Some shots came from places he had seen no movement.

It went on for a long time. It was pointless, wanton waste of
heat-blaster ammunition. But it satisfied some primal urge in the
human male without solving anything.

Until Darbor joined him, Denver did not waste thought upon the
futilities of the situation. Her presence terrified him, and he urged
her back inside. She was stubborn, but complied when he dragged her
back with him.

"Now stay inside, you fool," she muttered, her voice barely a whisper
in his communication amplifier.

"You stay inside," he commanded with rough tenderness. They both
stayed inside, crouched together behind the barricade.

"I think I got three of them," he told her. "There seemed to be eight
at first. Some went back to the ship. For more men or supplies, I
don't know. I don't like thi