s. It was terrible. Wat too, that
freckled-faced bantam.

"I should never have left them alone," he accused himself
remorsefully.

"Here," said Grim sharply, "none of that. You did exactly the proper
thing. We'll find them yet."

It was a confidence that he did not feel. There was the noise of
padding feet up the ramp. The Mercutians were coming, in force.

Grim gripped Hilary by the shoulder, shook him vigorously. "They're
coming. We're trapped."

Grendon snapped out of the lethargy into which he had sunk, face drawn
and gray.

"No. There is a way. Follow me."

The first of the Mercutians pounded heavily into the room when Hilary
had thrust Grim into the secret lift. He whirled and fired. The
Mercutian coughed and fell forward. Other gray warty faces, furious,
thrust from behind their dying comrade. But Hilary was in the lift,
pressing the button for full speed down. A darting ray showered them
with rounded smoking bits of vita-crystal, but they were dropping
headlong through the building.

* * * * *

Ten minutes later they emerged cautiously from the entrance to the
Pullman Building. It was deserted, deathly still. The two Earthmen
stopped short, horror-struck at what they saw.

The streets were shambles. Hundreds of bodies lay sprawled in tumbling
twisted heaps. Earthmen all, with here and there the grotesque huge
bulk of a Mercutian who had failed to hear the warning signal. The
bodies were scorched, blackened. Raw agony appeared on contorted
desperate faces. It was not good to look upon.

"Wh--what has happened?" Grim gasped, his breath coming heavily.

"Just a little pleasantry of the Mercutians," Hilary said bitterly. He
looked upward. High overhead hovered a gigantic shape, motionless.

Its great disk, burnished and dazzling in the cloudless sky, seemed to
cast a sinister shadow over the city it had destroyed a second time.

"There's the toy that did it," said Hilary. "I felt the heat while I
was a captive up in the Robbins Building. You must have flown over
after, and missed it."

Grim shook a great brawny fist aloft. His deceptively mild eyes were
hard flames now. His face was set in great strong ridges. Hilary had
never seen him this way before.

"I'll rip every Mercutian to pieces with my bare hands--shred him into
little bits." He meant it too. Hilary shuddered.

Far off down the wide thoroughfare came the glint of weapons, the
sight of massed ranks. A M