e eye, a
yellowish something flashing downward through the air.

At the same moment the woman immediately in front of Garlock stifled a
scream and jumped backward, bumping into him and almost knocking him
down. He staggered, caught his balance, and automatically put his arm
around his assailant, to keep her from falling to the sidewalk.

* * *

In the meantime the guardian, having landed very close to the spot the
woman had occupied a moment before, leaped again; this time vertically
upward. The thing, whatever it was, was now braking frantically with
wings, tail, and body; trying madly to get away. Too late. There was a
bone-crushing impact as the two bodies came together in mid-air; a
jarring thud as the two creatures, inextricably intertwined, struck the
pavement as one.

The thing varied in color, Garlock now saw, shading from bright orange
at the head to pale yellow at the tail. It had a savagely-tearing curved
beak; tremendously powerful wings; its short, thick legs ended in
hawk-like talons.

The guardian's bowed legs had already immobilized the yellow wings by
clamping them solidly against the yellow body. His two lower arms were
holding the frightful talons out of action. His third hand gripped the
orange throat, his fourth was exerting tremendous force against the
jointure of neck and body. The neck, originally short, was beginning to
stretch.

For several seconds Garlock had been half-conscious that his accidental
companion was trying, with more and more energy, to disengage his
encircling left arm from her waist. He wrenched his attention away from
the spectacular fight--to which no one else, not even the near-victim,
had paid the slightest attention--and now saw that he had his arm around
the bare waist of a statuesque matron whose entire costume would have
made perhaps half of a Tellurian sun-suit. He dropped his arm with a
quick and abject apology.

"I should apologize to you instead, Captain Garlock," she thought, with
a wide and friendly smile, "for knocking you down, and I thank you for
catching me before I fell. I should not have been startled, of course. I
would not have been, except that this is the first time that I,
personally, have been attacked."

"But what _are_ they?" Garlock blurted.

"I don't know." The woman turned her head and glanced, in complete
disinterest, at the two furiously-battling creatures. Garlock knew now
that this was the first time, exc