rs back have seen on Earth and Mars."

"And now," said Terrence as he eased over on his back with a heavy
sigh, "that we have run out of mud, we can start looking for Rumi."

"At least it'll be a change! Here Kitty! Here kitty! Nice Rumi! Come
and get a bayonet in...."

Clack, clack, clack. The sound of spring guns broke the stillness of
the afternoon and was followed by the sound of rifles and a cry of
pain.

"Oh, Lord!" moaned O'Mara, "now it starts!" He was on his feet,
gripping his carbine and running bent over. Fielding was at his heels,
dragging a machine gun off the ground.

"O'Shaughnessy! Hannigan! Take the first platoon. Move up to support
the pickets. O'Toole! On the double! Take your squad and try to get
around the firing. Bill, you and Polasky stand by here with the rest
of the men and the Bannings."

Terrence had plunged into the stream and splashed across and was
clambering up the opposite bank when one of his pickets came crawling
and stumbling back clutching a wounded arm. "Mr. Lieutenant! Mr.
Lieutenant! Rumi! Rumi! Many Rumi up ahead! Sullivan and O'Leary dead!
Rumi get!"

"Medic! Medic!" O'Shaughnessy was yelling in his ear with the
full-throated croak of an adult Narakan, drowning out what the wounded
picket was trying to say.

"How many? How many Rumi, man?" Terrence demanded.

"Twenty ... thirty ... maybe thousand!" the Narakan gasped as the
Medic led him off.

"'Twenty, thirty, maybe thousand.' That gives us a damn fine idea of
what we're up against!"

While his men dragged their big bodies up the bank of the stream,
O'Mara stood scowling at the eight foot high grass. Usually about a
foot high, the hardy and ubiquitous purple grass of Naraka grew far
more lushly around the edges of the swamps. He felt that it would be a
risky business at best to plunge into it after an unknown number of
enemy. At the same time he had an illogical determination not to leave
the bodies of his men in the hands of the Rumi. He looked at the
broad, big-mouthed exaggerations of Irish faces around him, heaved a
sigh that came from deep in his chest and ordered, "All right, men.
Spread out. Keep low and keep your eyes open. And try not to shoot
each other."

"We fix bayonets now, Lieutenant, sir?" Hannigan asked.

"You keep your eyes open, Sergeant," Terrence snapped, "I'll tell you
when to fix bayonets."

The noisy rustling of his men's heavy bodies as they pushed through
the grass made him nervous a