giant coming
toward him. Mr. Yens was a brave man; but he had been careless. His
neuro-pistol was in his own cabin. He did the best he knew, and
snapped the lock.

But Tolto's great bulk smashed in the door as if it were nothing. The
unbreakable glass did not splinter, but it bent like sheet metal, and
a blow of the giant's fist broke the mate's neck.

The mate had not engaged the gyroscopic control, and immediately the
ship began a series of eccentric maneuvers, so sharp and unexpected
that no one on board could keep his feet. For a few seconds she
straightened, and one of the crew bethought himself of the pistol in
the mate's cabin. He sighted on Tolto, clearly visible ahead. Before
he could release the ray the ship went into another breath-taking
maneuver.

A mountain peak came sliding toward them ominously. They scraped by.
The ship dived, throwing Tolto forward, and his instinctive grab threw
the elevator up. The levitators screamed madly as they lost their
purchase on the air, due to the ship's unstable keel.

"We're goners!" someone shouted. "Kill that fool!"

They bounced off a cliff, turned over and over like a tumbleweed. A
cylindrical building, unexpected in this wilderness, loomed up. They
seemed about to hit it, but floated past. The rock floor of the valley
rushed up. With a crash the ship rolled over, split wide open.

CHAPTER VI

_The Fight in the Fort_

Its coming had been observed. Men wearing the uniforms of the Martian
army dashed out, their pistols ready. A man dropped out of a gaping
hole in the ship's skin, sat down unsteadily. Others dribbled out.

"Crazy man in there!" one of them shouted. "Look out, he's murderous!"
The pistols came up. The soldiers began to close in, showing a certain
professional eagerness.

They were perhaps within ten feet when a metal plate, sheared off from
the pilot's cabin in the fall, lifted up. Barely visible under it was
a pair of large, running feet. One soldier, trying to oppose it with
his hands, was knocked senseless and bleeding. He might as well have
tried to stop an oncoming rocket ship.

Neuro-pistols, bearing from every side, spanged briskly. They partly
neutralized one another. Their charges were partly reflected by the
metal and partly absorbed by Tolto's great bulk. He was thoroughly
confused now. Every way he looked in this glaring wilderness of desert
and rocks were enemies.

* * * * *

But there