e could not bring himself to the point of actively fighting back, yet
he knew that in another moment he would either have to mercilessly
batter his beautiful adversary into helplessness or else be himself
overcome. There was no middle course.

Then old Emil Crawford's voice came again as the old man rallied to
consciousness for another brief moment.

"Bruce, the opal globe is a direct link to those devils themselves!
Break it, Bruce, break it--for Ruth's sake as well as your own!"

* * * * *

Crawford had barely finished his gasped warning when Ruth again hurled
herself forward upon Dixon with tapering fingers curved like talons as
they sought his throat. Dixon swept her clutching hands aside with a
desperate left-handed parry, then snatched wildly at the gleaming
head-piece with his right hand.

The thing came away in his grasp, and in the same swift movement he
savagely smashed it against the rocky wall beside him. Whatever the
opalescent globe's eery powers might be, it was not indestructible. It
shattered like a bursting bubble, its fire dying in a tiny cloud of
particles that shimmered faintly for a moment, then was gone.

Again, the effect upon Ruth was almost instantaneous. Every trace of
her insane fury vanished. She swayed dizzily and would have fallen had
not Dixon caught her in his arms. For a moment she looked up into his
face with eyes in which recognition now shone unmistakably. Then her
eyelids slowly closed, and she again lapsed into unconsciousness.

Dixon looked over at Emil Crawford, and found that the old man had
again collapsed. Dixon knew of but one thing to do with the stricken
man and girl, and that was to take them to his laboratory. The
laboratory, apparently insulated by veins of lead ore in the mountain
surrounding it, was the one sure spot of refuge in this weird
nightmare world of paralyzing lunar rays and prowling monsters.

* * * * *

Flinging his tunic over Ruth's head to shield her as much as possible
from the moonlight, he carried her to the laboratory, then returned
for Emil Crawford. Safe within the subterranean retreat with the old
scientist, Dixon removed his encumbering lead costume and began doing
what he could for the stricken pair.

Ruth was still unconscious, but the cataleptic rigidity was already
nearly gone from her body, and her breathing was now the deep
respiration of normal sleep.

Emil Crawford'