and Mikah who were milling about confusedly in
the dark, kicked Mikah again out of sheer malice and hatred of all
mankind, and led them towards the worksite at a dead run.

* * * * *

They escaped unharmed mainly because of the confusion on all sides of
them. The D'zertanoj seemed to never have experienced a night attack
before, which they apparently thought this was, and did an incredible
amount of rushing about and shouting. Matters were not helped by the
burning building nor the unconscious form of Edipon that was carried
from the blaze. All the D'zertanoj had been roused by the scream of
the safety valve, that was still bleeding irreplacable steam into the
night air, and there was much milling about.

In the confusion the fleeing slaves were not noticed, and Jason led
them around the guard post on the walls and directly towards the
worksite. They were spotted as they crossed the empty ground and after
some hesitation the guard ran in pursuit. Jason was leading the enemy
directly to his precious steam-wagon, but he had no choice. The thing
was certainly making its presence known in any case, and unless he
reached it at once the head of steam would be gone and they would be
trapped. He leaped the still recumbent guard at the entrance and ran
towards his machine. Snarbi was cowering behind one wheel but there
was no time to give him any attention. As Jason jumped onto the
platform the safety valve closed and the sudden stillness was
frightening. The steam was gone.

With frantic grabs he spun valves and shot one glance at the
indicator: there wasn't enough steam left to roll the meters. Water
gurgled and the boiler hissed and clacked at him while screams of
anger came from the D'zertanoj as they ran into the enclosure and saw
the bootleg _caroj_. Jason thrust the end of a molotail into the
firebox; it caught fire and he turned and hurled it at them. The angry
cries turned into screams of fear as the tongues of flame licked up at
the pursuers and they retreated in disorder. Jason ran after them and
hastened their departure with another molotail. They seemed to be
retreating as far as the refinery walls, but he could not be sure in
the darkness if some of them weren't creeping around to the sides.

He hurried back to the _caroj_, tapped on the still-unmoving pressure
indicator and opened the fuel feed wide. As an afterthought he wired
down the safety valve since his reinforced boiler