ht tube I would be
utterly at the mercy of any who might attack from behind.

Fairly spraying the oncoming horde, I drove them back, for a moment,
beyond the angle in the corridor; then I fairly dived into the tunnel
and crawled as fast as hands and knees could take me toward the
blessed open air.

I heard the things clatter into the space I had deserted. I heard them
scratching frantically in the tunnel behind me, evidently handicapped
by their long legs, which must have been drawn up very close to their
bodies.

Light came pouring in on me suddenly, and I realized that Correy had
won free. Behind me I could hear savage mandibles snapping, and cold
sweat broke out on me. How close a terrible death might be, I had no
means of knowing--but it was very close.

My head emerged; I drew my body swiftly out of the hole and snatched a
grenade from my belt. Instantly I flung it down the slanting passage,
with a shout of warning to my companions.

With a muffled roar, the grenade shook the earth; sent a brown cloud
spattering around us. I had made a desperate leap to get away, but
even then I was covered by the shower of earth.

I looked around. Trapdoors were open everywhere, and from hundreds of
these openings, Aranians were scuttling toward us.

But the ray operators were working; not only the little portable
machine, but the big projectors on the _Ertak_, five or six hundred
yards away; laying down a deadly and impassable barrage on either side
of us.

* * * * *

"They got Tipene, sir!" said Correy. "He dodged out ahead of the ray
men, and two of them pounced on him. They were dragging him away,
tearing him. The ray men wiped them out. Tipene was already dead--torn
to fragments, they said. Back to the ship now, sir?"

"Back to the ship," I nodded, still rather breathless. "Let the ray
men cover our retreat; we can take care of those between us and the
ship with our pistols--and the _Ertak's_ projectors will attend to our
flanks. On the double, men!"

We fought every step of the way, in a fog of reddish dust from the big
disintegrator rays playing on either side of us--but we made it, a
torn, weary, and bedraggled crew.

"Quite an engagement, sir," gasped Correy, when we were safely inside
the _Ertak_. "Think they'll remember this little visit of ours, sir?"

"I know we'll remember it, anyway," I said, shaking some of the dust
of disintegration from my clothes. "Just at the mome