in parts they seemed
dull and scabrous with some creeping fungus stuff, and on one side of
the city the wall was overwhelmed by a triumphant tide of green. There
the jungle had crawled over the ramparts and surged into the city.
Three of the towers had their bases in the welter of growing things,
and creepers had climbed incredibly and were still climbing to enter
and then destroy the man-made structures.

But about the city there now reared a new rampart, rising above the
tree-fern tops: there was a wall of the Death Mist encompassing the
city. No living thing could enter or leave the city without passing
through that cloud. And at Tommy's order it moved forward to the very
encampments of the Ragged Men.

He spoke, beginning his ultimatum. But a movement below checked him.
On a landing stage that was spotted with molds and lichens, women were
being herded into clear view. They were the women of the Golden City.
Tommy saw a tiny figure in khaki--Evelyn! Then there was a sudden
uproar from an encampment of the Ragged Men. His eyes flicked there,
and he saw the Ragged Men running into and out of the tall wall of
Death Mist. And they laughed uproariously and ran into and out of the
Mist again.

His pilot dived down. The Ragged Men yelled and capered and howled
derisively at him. He saw that they removed masklike things from their
faces in order to shout, and donned them again before running again
into the Mist. At once he understood. The Ragged Men had gas masks!

Then, a sudden cracking noise. Three men had opened fire with rifles
from below. Their garments were drab-colored, in contrast to the vivid
tints of the clothing of the inhabitants of Rahn. They were Jacaro's
gunmen. And a great freight carrier from Yugna veered suddenly, and a
bluish flash burst out before it, and it began to flutter helplessly
down into the city beneath.

The weapons of Tommy's fleet were useless, since the citizens of Rahn
were protected by gas masks. And Tommy's fighting ships were subject
to the same rifle fire against their propelling grids that had
defeated the fleet from Rahn. The only thing the avenging fleet could
now accomplish was the death of the women it could not save.

CHAPTER IX

_War!_

A huge ornithopter came heavily out on the landing stage in the city
of Rahn. Its crew took their places. With a creaking and rattling
noise it rose toward the invading fleet. From its filigree cockpit
sides, men waved green b