uld hear Fielding's voice cracking
out orders as he came up with twenty hastily armed and armored clerks,
cooks and radiomen from the HQ unit.

"O'Mara! O'Mara, they're breaking! They're running! Let's go!" Norton
was on the porch of the Residency pouring Tommy gun slugs at the rear
of the burning row of houses.

"Okay, let's go," Terrence said, lurching to his feet. The Narakan
sergeant blew his whistle and the riflemen swarmed out from their
shelters and started at a run across the square with Norton, Terrence
and O'Shaughnessy at their head. The rest of the Terrans in full
battle armor lumbered along after them.

One or two bolts whistled overhead and Corporal O'Brien dropped his
rifle and fell forward clutching his leg. The smoke from the burning
buildings obscured their vision but Terrence had a momentary sight of
Rumi radiation clothing and emptied his clip at it.

Someone from behind threw a grenade which fell short of its target and
rolled in front of them. Norton took two quick strides and kicked it
into one of the flaming buildings.

III

There were about twenty Rumi, less than they had thought, fleeing
across the open fields behind the burning huts. They were firing as
they ran and giving out those queer yelping cries of theirs. Three or
four of them fell and then Norton was shouting, calling back his men
to organize fire fighting parties.

"Captain! Captain, let's go after those guys. We can cut them off
before they get to the grasslands," Terrence yelled.

"Get your men after these fires, O'Mara. We can't let them spread."

There was nothing to do but obey but he delayed long enough to empty
his automatic in the general direction of the fleeing Rumi. Then he
turned and yelled, "Harrigan! Sergeant Harrigan! Where in the devil is
that...." There was a crashing sound behind him and Harrigan stumbled
through the smoke and came down on his foot, all three hundred pounds
of him.

Later, as the last smoking embers of the fire were being smothered by
industrious squads of Narakans with buckets and shovels, Terrence
limped back across the square with Bill Fielding.

"We should have gone after those lousy scum," Bill said, "They may cut
back around the town again and give the battalion some trouble on the
river road."

"Don't you think I know it! As fast as the Greenbacks can move when
they want to, we could have caught the lot of them before they got
into the grasslands. But Norton was worried abou