n death. The Martian spoke to
the dwarfs. They started forward, saliva drooling from their tusks.
Darl gritted his teeth. He would hold out as long as was humanly
possible.

A shrill rhythmic whistle came from somewhere outside. The blue giant
started and snapped something to the Mercurians. Then he turned to
Darl. "I must leave you for a little while," he said. "You have till
I return to change your mind." With a parting admonition to the
savages he was gone through a side door that Thomas had not noticed
before.

* * * * *

Grateful for the postponement, however short, of the inescapable
ordeal, Darl took stock of his situation. He lay, firmly bound, on the
gritty rock floor of a low-ceiled cave about twelve feet square. In
one wall was a door of red metal. The portal through which the Martian
had vanished was next to it. Darl repressed an exclamation when he saw
the opposite wall. It was of solid metal, bluishly iridescent. That
was beryllium steel, the alloy from which the barriers at the
terminals of the surta mine were fashioned. He forced his head higher.
There were the marks of the jointures, the weldings that he himself
had made.

The discovery seemed only to emphasize the helplessness of his
predicament. His faithful Venusians, Ran-los, Ta-ira, and the rest
were just on the other side of the three-inch plate of toughened
steel. Three inches--yet it might have been as many hundred miles for
all the help they could give him.

The yellow pigmies were circling in a macabre dance, their crimson
eyes turned always toward him, hate glowing from their crawling
depths. The whistle beyond changed in character. Darl recognized it.
It was a Martian space-radio, the code of which Earth scientists had
never been able to decipher. The Mercurian circle tightened, the fetid
smell of the dwarfs was overpowering. Low at first, then louder and
louder came the rattling cacophony of their chant. It filled the
confined space with an overpowering clamor.

Darl writhed again, rolling over and over till he had reached the
barrier. The pigmies gave way before him; evidently they had been
warned to keep their claws off. With his insteps Thomas could reach
the helmet of his space suit, where it had been dropped against the
wall. He drove it against the metal and the clangor of its striking
reverberated through the chamber. Darl managed to regulate the sound.
He was now hammering out double knocks, l