body of his to tear a hundred
Earth men to pieces.

Gordon stung Arlok's shoulder with the flame, then desperately leaped
to one side just in time to dodge a flailing blow that would have made
pulp of his body had it landed.

Arlok went stark wild in his frenzied efforts to come to grips with
his unseen adversary. Furniture crashed and splintered to kindling
wood beneath his threshing feet. Even the stout walls of the room
shivered and cracked as the incredible weight of Arlok's body caromed
against them.

* * * * *

Gordon circled lithely around the crippled blue monstrosity like a
timber wolf circling a wounded moose. He began concentrating his
attack upon Arlok's left leg. Half a dozen deep slashes with the
searing flame--then suddenly the thin leg crumpled and broke. Arlok
crashed helplessly to the floor.

Gordon was now able to shift his attack to Arlok's head. Dodging the
blindly flailing arms of the Xoranian, he stabbed again and again at
that oval-shaped skull.

The searing thrusts began to have their effect. Arlok's convulsive
movements became slower and weaker. Gordon sent the flame stabbing in
a long final thrust in an attempt to pierce through to that alien
metal brain.

With startling suddenness the flame burned its way home to some
unknown center of life force in the oval skull. There was a brief but
appalling gush of bright purple flame from Arlok's eye-sockets and
mouth orifice. Then his twitching body stiffened. His bluish-gray hide
darkened with incredible swiftness into a dull black. Arlok was dead.

Gordon, sickened at the grisly ending to the battle, snapped off the
flame-tool and turned to search for Leah. He found her already
standing in the hall door, alive, and unhurt.

* * * * *

"I escaped through the window at the end of the hall," she explained.
"Arlok quit following me as soon as he saw that you too were gone from
where he had left us tied." She shuddered as she looked down at the
Xoranian's mangled body. "I saw most of your fight with him, Blair. It
was terrible; awful. But, Blair, we've won!"

"Yes, and now we'll make sure of the fruits of our victory," Gordon
said grimly, starting over toward the Gate-opening apparatus with the
flame-tool in his hand. A very few minutes' work with the shearing
blade of flame reduced the intricate apparatus to a mere tangled pile
of twisted metal.

Arlok, Gate-opener of Xoran,