e men spread out. Another blast hissed down at them, so
close to Hilary that the heat seared his left side like a red-hot
iron. The Mercutians were getting the range. Wat Tyler stopped short
with a howl of defiance. He whipped the hand tube he had taken from
the dead guard out of his blouse.

"Hide it, you fool!" Hilary yelled back at him. "We don't want them to
known we are armed."

Wat obeyed reluctantly. He shook his fist high in the air, and started
to run again. It was not an instant too soon, either. A beam slithered
down the smoldering air, and the Earth literally boiled under its
impact, directly on the spot where Wat had stopped to shake his fist.
All about them the terrible rays were slashing now.

But a last desperate burst of speed carried the Earthmen onto a wide
enclosed portico, in the old manner. Hilary pounded on the
vita-crystal door. It was tightly locked.

* * * * *

"Step back a moment," Morgan rumbled.

Hilary obeyed. The big man spat thoughtfully upon his hands, worked
his shoulders tentatively. Then he too retreated to the outermost edge
of the portico. Above, the crystal suddenly shattered. Sharp-edged
fragments showered down upon them. There was little time to waste.

Grim heaved forward in a slanting rush, right shoulder extended. He
crashed into the locked door like a runaway train. There was a
grinding noise, a smash of crystal, and his shoulder was through,
incased in a halo of bright, sharp edges.

The big man staggered back, his shoulder streaming blood from a
hundred cuts. His face was pale and drawn.

"Good fellow," Wat yelled, "even though you are an overgrown ox." He
darted in behind the man-mountain like a twisting snake. His deft
fingers reached in through the shattered crystal, pressed something on
the inside. The door slid into its wall pocket with a sound of
grinding glass.

Wat burst into the opened room first, Grim right behind him. Hilary
brought up the rear, Grim's great bulk blotting out for the moment any
view of the interior.

There was a sudden gasp--a girl's voice.

"Wh--What does this mean?" She was tremulous, yet unafraid.

Hilary stopped suddenly as though brought up against a solid wall. His
heart pounded madly. That voice--but it was utterly impossible!

Wat answered, gallantly. "Sorry to annoy you, miss, but they're after
us. My partner here's wounded."

"Oh, you poor man." There was quick sympathy in the clear tone