e central plaza surrounding the Great Tower,
before it was checked at a line of hasty barricades. There was bitter
house-to-house fighting all across the city. Gerry knew that the stand
at the barricades could not be sustained for very long. The advance of
the Scaly Ones had at the moment outdistanced their supode ray casters
and their heavy caliber gas-guns. For the present the Amazon arrows held
them checked. The advance was sure to resume as soon as Lansa's heavy
weapons could be brought up again.

* * * * *

It was a hopeless fight--and yet Gerry could not bring himself to leave.
Partly it was his affection for the grief-stricken but indomitable
Closana that held him there. Partly it was the sheer courage of the
Amazon's gallant fight against such heavy odds that kept him in the
battle line. By some standards the affair was none of his business but
he could not quit now. However--he had not the right to hold his men in
the stricken city if they wished to leave. As he located the various
members of the _Viking's_ crew in the disorganized Amazon ranks, he gave
each one permission to escape from the city through the eastern marshes.
Portok's reaction was typical.

"Run from these snake-skinned devils?" the little Martian panted
hoarsely, his ruddy face gaunt and his eyes sunken deep in their
sockets. "Not while I can still stand. I'm staying with the rear
guard--as long as there is one!"

New fires had been started by the victory-drunk Reptilians, fires within
the walls. The lurid glow of burning houses made the night hideous.
Fully a third of the city was in flames by now, and only the easterly
wind kept the flames from driving the defenders away from those portions
of the city that they still held.

By noon the next day the tale was nearly all told. The Savissans now
held less than a third of their city, a V-shaped sector with the Arrow
Tower at its apex. The murky beams of supode rays were now continually
playing against the walls of the Great Tower itself, and small cascades
of pulverized rock kept sliding off the face of the stone work as the
weaker parts began to decompose under the steady impact of the rays. And
still the fight went on!

Gerry had forgotten what it was like to lie down and rest. He was
leaning in an angle of the wall, actually asleep on his feet, when
Chester Sand from the _Viking_ hurried across to him.

"Rupin-Sang wants to see you down in the garden righ