ebris of the wrecked apparatus as a stepping stone for a
running leap that landed him solidly on top of the metal bulk just back
of the crystal compartment.

He fumbled for the pistol in his belt, but before he could even touch it
a tentacle-tipped arm lashed down toward him, picked him off the thing's
back, and flung him with terrific force high into the air....

* * * * *

For a breathless moment he saw the girders and cables of the ceiling
hurtling toward him. Instinctively he grabbed with both hands at one of
the lower girders as his body thudded into it. His clutching fingers
slipped momentarily, then held, leaving him dangling there at arms'
length thirty feet above the floor.

His wits swiftly clearing from the shock of that mighty toss through
space, Foster scrambled up on the narrow girder. Sitting astride the
metal beam, he looked down at the scene below.

The battle down there was nearly over. The glowing slug in the machine
was now obviously trying to capture the remaining men alive for further
use. Instead of slaying, its lashing arms fought only to stun and
cripple.

Six of the men still remained on their feet but they were trapped in an
angle between heavy apparatus and one of the walls. In the central case
the ten semi-dormant slugs, still too inactive to take part in the
battle themselves, seemed watching the conflict with great unwinking
eyes of crimson.

Foster groaned. The metal colossus was too powerful for their feeble
efforts. It would take a bolt of lightning to have any effect upon that
mighty engine of war. At the thought, Foster's heart leaped in sudden
inspiration. There was lightning, the terrific electrical force of a
spinning planet, in the cables up here among the girders, if he could
only release it.

* * * * *

Slightly below his position and barely six feet away from him one of the
main power cables of the cavern was suspended from heavy insulators. If
the cable had ever had an insulating sheath around it the fabric had
vanished during the centuries for the dull silver-colored metal was now
completely bare.

If that naked cable could be dropped into contact with Layroh's
machine-body, the entire power of one of the cavern's main lines would
be grounded through the metal of the machine. The position of the cable
with regard to where the machine was now, was perfect for the scheme. If
Foster could sever the cable