-men. But Loah knew
other and seldom-used passages that roughly paralleled it; and then,
after a time, Rawson himself knew in what direction they must go.

He knew, too, that they had followed a circular route, and that the
room in which he had been sealed was not a great way from the place in
which Smithy was a prisoner. Yet this had been his only way to reach
it.

When they came to a sudden sharp turn, he realized that they were
close. Beyond that bend would be the branching, lateral tunnel that
led to Smithy's prison.

The main runway had been deserted by the Reds. Stopping often to
listen, starting at times into side passages at some fancied alarm,
they had met with no opposition. But now, from beyond the angling
passage, came the familiar shrillness of the mole-men's voices.

Again the two concealed themselves, but no one approached. "It's a
guard we hear," Rawson whispered. "They're guarding that entrance
where we must go. They're taking no chances on Smithy's escaping."
Then he crept to the point where the passage turned, the flame-thrower
ready in his hand.

He drew back. For the moment it seemed to him physically impossible to
turn this weapon upon them. They were savages, true, but it seemed
horrible to slash living bodies with a weapon like this. Then he
thought of the devastation those same weapons had wrought among the
people of his own world. His momentary hesitation vanished. With one
spring he leaped into the open where, a hundred feet away, red bodies
were massed, and the air above was quivering with the green jets of
their weapons.

His own flame-thrower he had turned to a tiny point of light; now it
roared forth in fury as he swung it forward. They had no time even to
aim their weapons or to turn them on. They were stampeded by the
astounding attack. And still Rawson sickened as he saw them fall.

There were some who, panic-stricken, dropped their cylinders and
leaped for safety in a narrow branching way. Rawson knew he should
have killed them, knew it in the instant that they vanished, but that
momentary, uncontrollable revulsion within him had stayed his hand.

He rushed forward now, Loah still bravely at his side--past the fallen
bodies, through the choking odor of burned flesh. Grabbing up one of
the weapons that had been dropped, he thrust it into her hands and
said: "Wait here. Stand them off if they come back." Then he was
rushing up the side corridor toward a room where once, in a
f