e.

Stanley, the Professor and I each took an end. And we prepared to fight,
with fire, the creatures of water.

"It ought to work," Stanley, repeated several times as though trying to
reassure himself as well as us. "It's simple enough: the water in those
helmets is ice cold: if fire is suddenly squirted against them they'll
crack with the uneven expansion."

"Unless," retorted the Professor, "their glass has some special heat and
cold resisting quality."

Stanley shrugged.

"It may well have some such properties. How such creatures can make
glass at all is beyond me!"

Dragging our hose to the big front entrance of the palace, and warning
the crowded people to keep their feet clear of it, we prepared to test
out the efficiency of this, our last resource against the enemy.

* * * * *

For an instant we paused just inside the doorway, looking out at the
ugly, glassed-in Things that were massing to attack us again.

The ranks of Quabos had closed in now, till they extended down the
street for several hundred yards in close formation--a forest of great
pulpy heads with huge eyes that glared unblinkingly at the glittering,
pink building that was their objective.

"Light up!" ordered Stanley, setting an example by touching his hose
nozzle to the nearest wall jet. A spurt of fire belched from his hose,
streaming out for four or five feet in a solid red cone. The Professor
and I touched off our torches; and we moved slowly out the door toward
the ranks of Quabos.

"Don't try to save yourselves from their tentacles," advised Stanley.
"Walk right up to them, direct the fire against their helmets, and damn
the consequences. If they grip too hard you can always play the torch on
their tentacles till they think better of it."

The Quabos' front line humped grimly toward us, unblinking eyes glaring,
tentacles writhing warily, little spurts of used water trickling from
their helmets.

"Keep together," warned Stanley, "so that if any one of us loses his
light he can get it from the hose of one of the other two. And--_Here
they come!_"

There was no more time for commands. The Quabos in front, supplied with
slack in their hoses by those behind, leaped at us with incredible
agility. We fell back a step so that none should get at our backs.

The last stand was begun.

* * * * *

It was not a battle so much as a series of fierce duels. The Quabos
realize