is when the attackers stopped
fighting, all eyes turned heavenward in sudden terror. Mike's eyes
followed theirs and he saw the ship.

* * * * *

It was a craft such as he could never have imagined in dream or
reverie. A great rectangular platform, its polished sides inlaid with
gold and fist-sized gems. There was a high railing around its edge
over which myriad faces peered down. Above it, elevated upon shining
cables, were two glowing balls not more than two feet in diameter, and
even in his preoccupation with more serious matters, Mike realized the
whole craft was suspended from these two balls, that they were its
means of buoyancy.

Then he was in the midst of a disordered flight as the warriors
charged screaming back to the forest. The ship was settling swiftly
toward the surface of the river and now a crystalline ray of some sort
shot out from the forward deck, cutting down the terrorized warriors
in their flight.

* * * * *

Every able-bodied one had fled the scene of battle. Some gained the
forest where the crystalline ray crisped the overgrowth into black
ashes as it nipped at their singed heels. Those not fortunate enough
to escape were but small nubs of blackened ashes on the open shore.

The ray had avoided touching the heart of the battleground and Mike
found himself standing alone among the bodies of the blacks he had
dispatched. Nicko was getting wearily to his feet. Doree stood frozen
nearby, abandoned by her captors, the great ship holding her gaze as a
snake would hold that of a bird.

The ship hung motionless a few inches above the rushing water, its
port side flanking the shore. And as a section of the railing arced
down from its position to become a landing ladder, Mike realized the
futility of delayed flight.

This was a fighting ship; a patrol craft ready and able to spread
devastation in any direction. There were perhaps a hundred men aboard
and as a squad filed down the ladder, Mike was struck by the
perfection of their six-foot bodies and by the pride and arrogance of
their manner.

Their attitude was one of casual contempt mixed with mild interest.
Doree had moved into the shelter of his arm and the grumbling Nicko
had also come close but with interest centered more upon his aching
scales than this new possible enemy.

While the squad stood at attention, their leader surveyed the bloody
section of shore. He checked eac