rled against the rock.
The light was too bad for accurate shooting, but luck couldn't stay with
them forever.

Gray glanced over his shoulder as they scrambled up on the ledge. Caron
waited by his ship. Ward and the others were charging the slope. Gray's
teeth gleamed in a cruel grin.

Sweeping Jill into his arms, he stepped into the lapping flow of fire.
Dio swore viciously, but he followed. They started toward the cave
mouth, staggering in the rush of the wind.

"For God's sake, don't fall," snapped Gray. "Here they come!"

The pilot and one of the nondescript men were the first over. They were
into the river of fire before they knew, it, and then it was too late.
One collapsed and was buried. The pilot fell backward, and then other
man died under his body, of a broken neck.

Ward stopped. Gray could see his face, dark and hard and calculating. He
studied Gray and Dio, and the dead men. He turned and looked back at
Caron. Then, deliberately, he stripped off his gun belt, threw down his
gun, and waded into the river.

Gray remembered, then, that Ward too wore rubber boots, and had no metal
on him.

* * * * *

Ward came on, the glowing ropes sliding surf-like around his boots. Very
carefully. Gray handed Jill to Dio.

"If I die too," he said, "there's only Caron down there. He's too fat to
stop you."

Jill spoke, but he turned his back. He was suddenly confused, and it was
almost pleasant to be able to lose his confusion in fighting. Ward had
stopped some five feet away. Now he untied the length of tough cord that
served him for a belt.

Gray nodded. Ward would try to throw a twist around his ankle and trip
him. Once his body touched those swarming creatures....

He tensed, watchfully. The rat's grin was set on Ward's dark face. The
cord licked out.

But it caught Gray's throat instead of his ankle!

Ward laughed and braced himself. Cursing, Gray caught at the rope. But
friction held it, and Ward pulled, hard. His face purpling, Gray could
still commend Ward's strategy. In taking Gray off guard, he'd more than
made up what he lost in point of leverage.

Letting his body go with the pull, Gray flung himself at Ward. Blood
blinded him, his heart was pounding, but he thought he foresaw Ward's
next move. He let himself be pulled almost within striking distance.

Then, as Ward stepped, aside, jerking the rope and thrusting out a
tripping foot, Gray made a catlike shift of b