dged back and muttered, and suddenly I made my choice. I whirled,
snatched up the girl in my arms and ran straight toward the advancing
figures of the Ya-men.

Nobody followed me. I even heard a choked shout that sounded like a
warning. I heard the yelping shrieks of the Ya-men grow to a wild howl,
and at the last minute, when their stiff rustling plumes loomed only a
few yards away, I dived sidewise into an alley, stumbled on some rubbish
and spilled the girl down.

"Run, kid!"

She shook herself like a puppy climbing out of water. Her small fingers
closed like a steel trap on my wrist. "This way," she urged in a hasty
whisper, and I found myself plunging out the far end of the alley and
into the shelter of a street-shrine. The sour stink of incense smarted
in my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping of the Ya-men as they
leaped and rustled down the alley, their cold and poisonous eyes
searching out the recess where I crouched with the girl.

"Here," she panted, "stand close to me on the stone--" I drew back,
startled.

"Oh, don't stop to argue," she whimpered. "Come _here_!"

"_Hai-ai!_ Earthman! There he is!"

The girl's arms flung round me again. I felt her slight, hard body
pressing on mine and she literally hauled me toward the pattern of
stones at the center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if I
hadn't caught her closer yet.

The world reeled. The street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights,
stars danced crazily, and I plunged down through a widening gulf of
empty space, locked in the girl's arms. I fell, spun, plunged head over
heels through tilting lights and shadows that flung us through
eternities of freefall. The yelping of the Ya-men whirled away in
unimaginable distances, and for a second I felt the unmerciful blackout
of a power dive, with blood breaking from my nostrils and filling my
mouth.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lights flared in my eyes.

I was standing solidly on my feet in the street-shrine, but the street
was gone. Coils of incense still smudged the air. The God squatted
toadlike in his recess. The girl was hanging limp, locked in my clenched
arms. As the floor straightened under my feet I staggered, thrown off
balance by the sudden return of the girl's weight, and grabbed blindly
for support.

"Give her to me," said a voice, and the girl's sagging body was lifted
from my arms. A strong hand grasped my elbow. I found a chair beneath my
knees and sank gratefully into