asping hands, and a red face went white under the
smashing impact of the flyer's fist.

They poured over the sand-hills now---scores of leaping
man-shapes--and McGuire knew in an instant of self-accusation that
there had been a shelter after all, where a portion of the enemy force
had stayed. The explosion had brought them, and now--

He struck in a raging frenzy at the grotesque things that came racing
upon them. He knew Sykes was fighting too. He tore wildly at the lean
arms that bound him and kept him from those a step or two away who
were throwing the figure of a girl across the shoulders of one of
their men, while her eyes turned hopelessly toward McGuire.

They threw the two men upon the sand and crowded to kneel on the
prostrate bodies and strike and tear with their long hands, then tied
them at ankles and wrists with metal cords, and raised them helpless
and bound in the air.

One of the red creatures pointed a long arm toward the demolished gun
and shrieked something in a terror-filled tone. The others, at the
sound, raced off through the sand, while those with the burden of the
three captives followed as best they could.

"The gun!" said Professor Sykes in a thick voice: the words were
jolted out of him as the two who carried him staggered and ran. "They
know--that it--hasn't--gone off--"

* * * * *

The straggling troop that strung out across the dim-lit dunes was
approaching another domed shelter of heavy concrete. They crowded
inside, and the bodies of the three were thrown roughly to the floor,
while the red creatures made desperate haste to close the heavy door.
Then down they went into the deeper safety of a subterranean room,
where the massive walls about them quivered to a nerve-deadening jar.
It shook those standing to the floor, and the silence that followed
was changed to a bedlam by the inhuman shrieking of the creatures who
were gloating over their safety and the capture they had achieved.
They leaped and capered in a maniacal outburst and ceased only at the
shrill order of one who was in command.

At his direction the three were carried out of doors and thrown upon
the ground. McGuire turned his head to see the face of Althora. There
was blood trickling from a cut on her temple, and her eyes were dazed
and blurred, but she managed a trembling smile for the anxious eyes of
the man who could only struggle hopelessly against the thin wires that
held him.

A