that's Miko! We must run."

Then I saw my bullet projector. It lay in a bowl-like depression quite
near us. I jumped for it. And as I tore loose from Anita, she leaped
down after me. It was a broken bowl in the rocks, some six feet deep.
It was open on the side facing the staircase--a narrow, ravinelike
gully, full of gray, broken, tumbled rock-masses. The little gully was
littered with crags and boulders. But I could see out through it.

Miko had come to the head of the staircase. He stopped there, his
great figure etched sharply by the Earthlight. I think he must have
known that Coniston was the one who had fallen over the cliff, as my
helmet and Coniston's were different enough for him to recognize which
was which. He did not know who I was, but he did know me for an enemy.

* * * * *

He stood now at the summit, peering to see where we had gone. He was
no more than fifty feet from us.

"Anita, lie down."

I pulled her down on the rocks. I took aim with the bullet projector.
But I had forgotten our helmet-lights. Miko must have seen them just
as I pulled the trigger. The flying bullet missed him as he jumped
sidewise. He dropped, but I could see him moving in the shadows to
where a jutting rock gave him shelter. I fired again.

"Gregg."

I had stood up to take aim. I saw the bullet chip a bit of rock. Anita
pulled me sharply down beside her.

"Gregg, he's armed!"

It was his turn to fire. It came--the familiar vague flash of the
paralyzing ray. It spat its tint of color on the rocks near us, but
could not reach us.

Miko rose a moment later and bounded to another rock. I scrambled up,
and shot at him, but missed. Then he crouched and returned my fire
from his new angle; but Anita and I had shifted.

Time passed--only a few moments. I could not see Miko momentarily.
Perhaps he was crouching; perhaps he had moved away again. He was, or
had been, on slightly higher ground than the bottom of our bowl. It
was dim down here where we were lying, but I feared that every moment
Miko might appear and strike at us. His ray at any short range would
penetrate our visor-panes, even though our suits might temporarily
resist it.

"Anita--it's too dangerous here."

Had I been alone, I might perhaps have leaped up to lure Miko. But
with Anita I did not dare chance it.

"We've got to get back to the camp," I told her. The audiphone brought
her comment:

"Perhaps he has gone."