e a
little more noise than he did.

A space boot came into view around a big rock, and Wayne aimed his
needle-beam at the spot where the man's head would appear.

When the head came around the rock, Wayne fired. The man dropped
instantly. _Sorry, friend_, Wayne apologized mentally. _Two down.
Fifty-seven to go._ The odds were still pretty heavy.

He knew he had to move quickly now; the others had seen the man drop,
and by now they should have a pretty good idea exactly where Wayne was.

He picked up a rock and lobbed it over a nearby boulder, then started
moving cat-like in the other direction. He climbed up onto another
boulder and watched two men move away from him. They were stepping
warily, their beam guns in their hands. Wayne wiped away a bead of
perspiration, aimed carefully, and squeezed the firing stud twice.

_Four down. Fifty-five to go._

* * * * *

A moment later, something hissed near his ear. Without waiting, he spun
and rolled off the boulder, landing cat-like on his feet. Another
crewman was standing on top of a nearby boulder. Wayne began to sweat;
this pursuit seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, and it was beginning
to look unlikely that he could avoid them forever.

He had dropped his pistol during the fall; it was wedged between a
couple of rocks several feet away.

He heard someone call: "I got him. He fell off the rock. We'll take him
back down below."

Then another voice--ominously. "He won't mind. He'll be glad we did it
for him--afterwards."

"I'll go get him," said the first voice. The man stepped around the side
of the boulder--just in time to have a hard-pitched rock come thunking
into his midsection.

"Oof!" he grunted, took a couple of steps backwards, and collapsed.

_Five down. Fifty-four to go._ It could go on forever this way.

"What's the matter?" asked the man who had replied to the first one with
those chilling words.

"Nothing," said Wayne, in a fair imitation of the prostrate crewman's
voice. "He's heavy. Come help me."

Then he reached down and picked up the fallen man's beam gun. He took
careful aim.

When the sixth man stepped around the rock, he fired. The beam went
wide of the mark, slowing the other down, and Wayne charged forward. He
pounded two swift punches into the amazed crewman, who responded with a
woozy, wild blow. Wayne ducked and let the fist glide past his ear, then
came in hard with a solid body-blow and let t