ouching Sleeper's face.

He stared without any sign of recognition, turned to fire, fired, and,
shouting, "To hell with the Council!" was about to fire again. Then it
seemed to Graham that the half of this man's neck had vanished. A
drop of moisture fell on Graham's cheek. The green weapon stopped
half raised. For a moment the man stood still with his face suddenly
expressionless, then he began to slant forward. His knees bent. Man and
darkness fell together. At the sound of his fall Graham rose up and ran
for his life until a step down to the gangway tripped him. He scrambled
to his feet, turned up the gangway and ran on.

When the sixth star glared he was already close to the yawning throat of
a passage. He ran on the swifter for the light, entered the passage
and turned a corner into absolute night again. He was knocked sideways,
rolled over, and recovered his feet. He found himself one of a crowd of
invisible fugitives pressing in one direction. His one thought now
was their thought also; to escape out of this fighting. He thrust and
struck, staggered, ran, was wedged tightly, lost ground and then was
clear again.

For some minutes he was running through the darkness along a winding
passage, and then he crossed some wide and open space, passed down a
long incline, and came at last down a flight of steps to a level place.
Many people were shouting, "They are coming! The guards are coming. They
are firing. Get out of the fighting. The guards are firing. It will be
safe in Seventh Way. Along here to Seventh Way!" There were women and
children in the crowd as well as men. Men called names to him. The crowd
converged on an archway, passed through a short throat and emerged on a
wider space again, lit dimly. The black figures about him spread out and
ran up what seemed in the twilight to be a gigantic series of steps. He
followed. The people dispersed to the right and left.... He perceived
that he was no longer in a crowd. He stopped near the highest step.
Before him, on that level, were groups of seats and a little kiosk. He
went up to this and, stopping in the shadow of its eaves, looked about
him panting.

Everything was vague and gray, but he recognised that these great steps
were a series of platforms of the "ways," now motionless again. The
platform slanted up on either side, and the tall buildings rose beyond,
vast dim ghosts, their inscriptions and advertisements indistinctly
seen, and up through the girders a