ide, I can shoot down on them. How are we going to get out
of this?"

"You tell me," Rick suggested. "I don't know."

The pirates hadn't been long in catching on. A few vintas were already
rounding the cove point heading for the party now huddled behind
boulders on a ledge just above the sea. Rick hurried down to join the
others, leaving Scotty to guard the rear.

Tony Briotti greeted him. "Look."

Rick's eyes followed the archaeologist's pointing finger. Off to the
southeast, on a sea tinted pink from the rising sun, he saw the low
lines of the _Swift Arrow_. Chahda was on his way!

Zircon bellowed, "Watch it!" He echoed his words with the flat slap of a
pistol shot. The first vinta had reached the group and was standing only
a few feet offshore. Others were crowding in behind it. Rick got ready
to shoot again, and saw that the Torres boy, a bloody handkerchief tied
around his upper arm, was throwing rocks with his good hand. Tony
Briotti followed suit, picking up large chunks of lava and slamming them
into the pirate craft.

Rick spotted a rifleman in the nearest vinta and sent a broadhead arrow
at him. The arrow passed between the pirate's arm and side, but pinned
him by his shirt to the vinta mast. Rick quickly nocked another arrow
and waited for a clear shot.

Behind him, Scotty's rifle spoke once, twice, then a third time. Yells
from beyond the spit of land showed that the pirates had tried to come
at them overland. Rick hoped Scotty's single rifle would be enough. At
least his pal was shooting from cover, while the pirates were in the
open.

A vinta tried to approach and Rick sent an arrow into the helmsman's
shoulder. The vinta sheered off and collided with another.

It was only a question of time before the pirates were forced ashore by
their very numbers. Rick knew that his small group wouldn't last long,
not against barongs and krises. He shot again, and took a pirate
rifleman out of the action. Zircon's heavy automatic picked off the
first pirate that tried to climb ashore, and slammed him back onto his
fellows.

Tony Briotti aided the sudden pile-up of pirates with a chunk of lava
the size of a basketball. Sudden screams of pain and rage came from the
mass of struggling Moros.

Other vintas had pulled into shore farther away and Rick saw pirates
scrambling up the rock unhindered. He got two with arrows, then Scotty
fired from his vantage point and drove them to cover.

Above the Moro battle