the lightning gun were forming a sort of semicircle, embarrassed by
the comrades driven back upon them, but drawing momentarily nearer,
and seeking to enclose before firing the object of their aim. They
would have shattered my heart and head in another instant but
that--springing on the projecting stone of which I have spoken, which
raised her to my level--Eveena had flung her arms around me, and
sheltered my person with her own. This, and the confusion,
disconcerted the aim of most of the assailants. The roar and flash
half stunned me for a moment;--then, as I caught her in my left arm, I
became aware that it was but her lifeless form that I clasped to my
breast. Giving her life for mine, she had made mine worse than
worthless. My sword fell for a moment from my hand, retained only by
the wrist-knot, as I placed her gently and tenderly on the ground,
resting against the stone which had enabled her to effect the
sacrifice I as little desired as deserved. Then, grasping my weapon
again, and shouting instinctively the war-cry of another world, I
sprang into the midst of the enemy. At the same moment, "_Ent an
Clazinta_" (To me the Zinta), cried the Chief behind; and having
rallied the broken ranks, even before the sight of Eveena's fall had
inspired reckless fury in the place of panic confusion, he led on the
Zveltau, the spear in hand elevated over their heads, and pointed at
the unprotected faces of the enemy. Exposed to the cold steel or its
Martial equivalent, the latter, as I had predicted, broke at once. My
sword did its part in the fray. They scarcely fought, neither did they
fling down their weapons. But in that moment neither force nor
surrender would have availed them. We gave no quarter to wounded or
unwounded foe. When, for lack of objects, I dropped the point of my
streaming sword, I saw Endo Zampta alive and unwounded in the hands of
the victors.

"Coward, scoundrel, murderer!" I cried. "You shall die a more terrible
death than that which your own savage law prescribes for crimes like
yours. Bind him; he shall hang from my vessel in the air till I see
fit to let him fall! For the rest, see that none are left alive to
boast what they have done this day."

Struggling and screaming, the Regent was dragged to the summit, and
hung by the waist, as I had threatened, from the entrance window of
the Astronaut. Esmo's body and those of the other slain among the
Zveltau had been raised, and our comrades were about