ght to the very
portal of their sanctum of holies blew clouds of white smoke that
eddied and whirled as they rose round his head.

The effect was not lost upon Jerry. And his mind was working. Was fire
unknown to these strange beings? Here in the deep caverns, far from
the surface, was fire a thing of terror to them? He looked back toward
the wall.

"If they rush me," he thought, "there's a good place to be. That will
feel mighty comfortable at my back."

He walked slowly, the smoke rising thick about his head. The
copper-clad figures before him withdrew, the ranks parting to let him
through. Unharmed he reached the safety of the wall. The enemy now
formed a semi-circle before him.

The inertia of the stricken beings on the platform was broken by his
move. Again their head priest gave an order; from another side a
second detachment of armed men came on. They were carrying something.
Jerry leaned forward in quivering preparedness as he saw, in the
floodlight of radiance, the body of Winslow lying on the floor.

* * * * *

Was he injured? Dead? The devastating loneliness that swept him at the
sight of the still body was unnerving. He breathed a long sigh of
relief as the lanky figure rose slowly to its feet. Winslow was alive!
They would show these beastly, unearthly humans something yet.

There was no preparation--no preliminaries. Whether Winslow could have
reacted as Jerry had would never be known. He seemed stunned and
helpless, and it was with no resisting hesitation that he began the
climb to the unknown.

Jerry's crouching tenseness snapped. No thought of the gun as he
sprang toward the enemy between him and his friend. "No, Winslow--no!"
he shouted as he leaped at the figures in front of him.

Their strength had seemed startling to Jerry when they had carried him
like a child. He had forgotten his lightness here on this unheavy
world. And he had forgotten his own great strength.

No panting, exhausted, beaten fighter of beasts was this that hurled
himself against the ranks before him. One coppery sword flashed upward
above his head. Its bearer was seized in two hands that picked him
bodily from the floor and crashed him, a living projectile, among the
others. Jerry waited for no more. There was an opening ahead, and
beyond was Winslow, walking stiffly, certainly, up that damnable
slope. He threw himself in giant leaps across the floor.

His companion was half-way up the