erate half-men, living products of a dying
race--whipped the air in a frenzy of expectation as they darted above
those chasms that were like rifts in the rock roof of hell.

Chet did not answer the statements of the girl. Instead he turned and
gathered her once into his arms, while his lips met hers to find a ready
response. Her face, so calm and pale, was turned upward to his. And his
own voice trembled at first; then was steady and firm.

"I love you. I've come a long way to tell you, and I didn't know why I
came. And now it is too late."

"Anita Haldgren," he said, and let his voice linger as he repeated the
name, "Anita Haldgren--a beautiful name--a beautiful soul! And now--" He
released her quickly and swung to meet a rush of beastly things that
half-ran, half-flew across the great room.

* * * * *

Outstretched arms of white that ended in black claws! Snarling, grinning
teeth in faces of dead-white flesh! Barbed tails that hissed through the
air as they swung down upon him! And Chet Bullard, his blond hair
shining like the gold that was inlaid and encrusted upon the walls of
the room--Chet Bullard, Master Pilot, once, of a distant Earth--did not
wait for the assault to reach him, but sprang in upon the beastly things
with swinging fists that came up from beneath to crash into grinning
faces; to smash dully into white, scabrous flesh; or catch beneath the
angle of out-thrust jaws jolt the ghastly faces into awkward angles.

They went down before him at first. Then the long rat-tails came
whipping over, the demon-heads, ripping down with slashing blows on the
pilot's head and shoulders. Off at one side, a dozen paces away, a
slender figure tore loose from gripping claws. Chet saw it; he freed
himself for an instant to leap to her side. She was tugging at a bar of
gold, a scepter in the hands of a sculptured figure in the wall. It
would have been a serviceable weapon, but it bent slowly. Another of the
beasts was upon her as Chet sprang.

This one went down beneath the chopping right that Chet shot to a lean,
white jaw; then a barbed tail caught him a blow that laid his shoulder
open. Another descended--and another. The pilot sank to the floor. Anita
was beside him, shielding him with her own body from the rain of blows.
Then they were buried beneath a great weight of odorous bodies--till
Chet, after a time, felt himself dragged to his feet.

* * * *