top of the knoll, grasped a pole he had placed there in
readiness and rammed it down through the pool, turbid yellow with the
juice from the vines, and broke open the outlet he had plugged in the
base.

* * * * *

One green light slashed above his head. One flicked at the knoll near
his feet, where green growing things burst into flame--then he threw
himself backward down the short rocky slope while the stones tore at
his nearly nude body. He sprang to his feet and held Loah close. On
either side of the knoll was a holocaust of flame where green lights
played. He waited breathlessly. The fires brought in a little back
draft of air, the scent of peach pits was strong--and then the green
lights ceased. The unripe grain of the fields smoldered slowly.

Then Rawson stepped from his hiding and stared out at the Place of
Death.

Nearby was a huddle of bodies. On either side, in a long, straggling
line, they lay now on the ground--a windrow where Death had reaped.
The flames of their weapons still in action were all that moved. The
white earth turned molten wherever those flames struck.

Farther off there were red things that were running. The yellow liquid
from the pool, charged with the acid of the vines, had been slow in
flowing out through that long trough. The savages could only see that
their fellows had fallen. Some mystery, something invisible and beyond
their comprehension had struck them. They ran toward the center at
first, then turned and fled--and by then the soft air blowing gently
about them had brought that strange fragrance of death. Then they,
too, lay still.

From the distance came faintly a booming chant, two thousand voices
raised in unison. "_Tur--gona! Nu--tur--gona!_" The last of a once
mighty people were marching to their death.

Rawson and Loah turned with one accord. Victory was theirs, but there
was no time to taste the fruits of victory. They ran with straining
muscles and gasping breath toward the distant mountain and the
marching host beyond.

* * * * *

"My plans are made," Rawson spoke quietly. "I must go. I shall take
the shell--the jana--and go back to the mole-men's world. I shall go
alone, and I shall die, but what of that?" His eyes lit up for a
moment. "I'll try to find _Phee-e-al_ first. If I can get him before
they get me, that will help."

They were standing on the mountain's lower slope, Gor and Leah and the