coming in with
loaded carts moved past us inches away without a sign.

"Tweel must have noticed that. Suddenly, he snatched out that glowing
coal cigar-lighter of his and touched a cart-load of plant limbs. Puff!
The whole load was burning--and the crazy beast pushing it went right
along without a change of pace! It created some disturbance among our
'V-r-r-riends,' however--and then I noticed the smoke eddying and
swirling past us, and sure enough, there was the entrance!

"I grabbed Tweel and out we dashed and after us our twenty pursuers. The
daylight felt like Heaven, though I saw at first glance that the sun was
all but set, and that was bad, since I couldn't live outside my
thermo-skin bag in a Martian night--at least, without a fire.

"And things got worse in a hurry. They cornered us in an angle between
two mounds, and there we stood. I hadn't fired nor had Tweel; there
wasn't any use in irritating the brutes. They stopped a little distance
away and began their booming about friendship and ouches.

"Then things got still worse! A barrel-brute came out with a pushcart
and they all grabbed into it and came out with handfuls of foot-long
copper darts--sharp-looking ones--and all of a sudden one sailed past my
ear--zing! And it was shoot or die then.

"We were doing pretty well for a while. We picked off the ones next to
the pushcart and managed to keep the darts at a minimum, but suddenly
there was a thunderous booming of 'v-r-r-riends' and 'ouches,' and a
whole army of 'em came out of their hole.

"Man! We were through and I knew it! Then I realized that Tweel wasn't.
He could have leaped the mound behind us as easily as not. He was
staying for me!

"Say, I could have cried if there'd been time! I'd liked Tweel from the
first, but whether I'd have had gratitude to do what he was
doing--suppose I _had_ saved him from the first dream-beast--he'd done
as much for me, hadn't he? I grabbed his arm, and said 'Tweel,' and
pointed up, and he understood. He said, 'No--no--no, Tick!' and popped
away with his glass pistol.

"What could I do? I'd be a goner anyway when the sun set, but I couldn't
explain that to him. I said, 'Thanks, Tweel. You're a man!' and felt
that I wasn't paying him any compliment at all. A man! There are mighty
few men who'd do that.

"So I went 'bang' with my gun and Tweel went 'puff' with his, and the
barrels were throwing darts and getting ready to rush us, and booming
about being friends