a long-practiced maneuver, a strong rear guard
slipped into place at the entrance. Craig, driving into the temple, was
not going to leave his rear unprotected, to leave his line of retreat
open to the chance of being cut.

* * * * *

In the vast arena there was a handful of yellow-clad guards surrounding
the pool of boiling lava. All the other Ogrum had left the temple.

"Blast them!" Craig grimly ordered.

Machine guns thundered in what was probably the first temple of the sun
ever built on earth! Hot lead screamed down at the guards around the
lava pool. When the sailors saw the human, bound, ready to be offered as
a living sacrifice to the hideous white beast that was always hungry,
the priests of the temple lost what little chance they ever had of being
taken alive.

The sacrifice had been prepared. The sailors had arrived at the last
possible moment.

Two minutes after the sailors had entered the temple, there was not a
yellow-clad priest left alive in the vast open arena in the center of
the building. Craig was knocking bars from the cage where the prisoners
were penned. Captain Stinky Higgins was standing behind those bars.
Margy Sharp was standing beside the captain. Higgins had a strange look
on his face.

"By the Lord, Craig--" was all he said when the bars went down. Craig
felt his knuckles pop as the captain shook his hand.

The girl's face was paste white but she had her nerves under control.
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" she said, looking at Craig. Then, as
silently as a falling shadow, she collapsed.

"No, no, she's all right," Higgins said, in answer to Craig's frantic
questions. "She has only fainted. She--all of us--have been through
hell. Those damned beasts came in here and grabbed one of the men. We
watched them--get ready to toss him into that pool of lava. Craig, how
did you get here?"

Captain Higgins was dazed. Behind him the captives were pouring out of
their prison cell.

"No time to talk," Craig said hastily. "We've got to get the hell out of
here. Each of us brought an extra gun and as many grenades as we could
carry. We'll have to fight our way back to the mountains--"

Already the sailors were tossing guns to their comrades who had been
held prisoner. The look on the men's faces as they eagerly grabbed the
weapons boded no good for any Ogrum who tried to stop them from
escaping. Meanwhile Craig and Higgins revived Margy Sharp. The man who
had