That he was communicating orders to them at once became evident, for immediately they spread out as though to surround us.
I loosed another arrow then, this time at the new leader. I struck him in the side and elicited such a roar of pain and rage as I hope I may never hear again—at least not under such circumstances.
Reaching back with one hand the beastman seized the shaft and tore it from his body, inflicting a far more serious hurt than the arrow had made in entering; and now his roars and screams fairly shook the ground.
The others paused to watch him, and I saw one large male slink slowly toward the wounded leader. The latter saw him, too; and with bared fangs and ferocious growls charged him. The ambitious one, evidently realizing that his hopes had been premature, wheeled and fled; and the new chief let him go and turned again toward us.
By this time we were three-quarters surrounded. There were nearly twenty ferocious beasts confronting us, and I had less than a dozen arrows.
Nalte touched me on the arm. 'Good-by, Carson ,' she said. 'Now, surely, the last is upon us.'
I shook my head. 'I am saving the last second in which to die,' I replied. 'Until then I shall not admit that there is ever to be a last second for me, and then it will be too late to matter.'
'I admire your courage if not your reasoning,' said Nalte, the ghost of a smile on her lips. 'But at least it will be a quick death—did you see how that fellow tore at the throat of the first one you shot? It is better than what Skor would have done to us.'
'At least we shall be dead,' I observed.
'Here they come!' cried Nalte.
They were closing in on us now from three sides. Arrow after arrow I drove into them, nor once did I miss my mark; but they only stopped those that I hit—the others slunk steadily forward.
They were almost upon us as I loosed my last arrow. Nalte was standing close beside me. I put an arm about her.
'Hold me close,' she said. 'I am not afraid to die, but I do not want to be alone—even for an instant.'
'You are not dead yet, Nalte.' I couldn't think of anything else to say. It must have sounded foolish at such a time, but Nalte ignored it.
'You have been very good to me, Carson,' she said.
'And you have been a regular brick, Nalte, if you know what that means—which you don't.'
'Good-by, Carson ! It is the last second.'
'I guess it is, Nalte.' I stooped and kissed her. 'Good-by!'
* * * * *
From above us and behind us on the mound came a sudden crackling hum that was like the noise that an X- ray machine makes, but I knew that it was not an X-ray machine. I knew what it was even without the evidence of the crumpling bodies of the zangans dropping to the ground before us—it was the hum of the r-ray rifle of Amtor!
I wheeled and looked up toward the summit of the mound. There stood a dozen men pouring streams of the destructive rays upon the pack. It lasted for but a few seconds, but not one of the ferocious beasts escaped death. Then one of our rescuers (or were they our captors) came toward us.
He, like his companions, was a man of almost perfect physique, with a handsome, intelligent face. My first impression was that if these were fair examples of the citizens of that white city from which I assumed they had come, we must have stumbled upon an Olympus inhabited solely by gods.
In every company of men we are accustomed to seeing some whose proportions or features are ungainly or uncouth; but here, though no two men exactly resembled one another, all were singularly handsome and symmetrically proportioned.
He who approached us wore the customary gee-string and military harness of the men of Amtor. His trappings were handsome without being ornate, and I guess from the insigne on the fillet that encircled his brow that he was an officer.
'You had a close call,' he said pleasantly.
'Rather too close for comfort,' I replied. 'We have you to thank for our lives.'
'I am glad that I arrived in time. I happened to be on the river wall as you drifted past, and saw your encounter with the men from Kormor. My interest was aroused; and, knowing that you were headed for trouble down river on account of the falls, I hurried down to try to warn you.'
'A rather unusual interest in strangers for a man of Amtor,' I commented, 'but I can assure you that I appreciate it even if I do not understand it.'
He laughed shortly. 'It was the way you handled those three creatures of Skor,' he explained. 'I saw possibilities in such a man; and we are always looking for better qualities to infuse into the blood of Havatoo. But come, let me introduce myself. I am Ero Shan.'
'And this is Nalte of Andoo,' I replied, 'and I am Carson Napier of California.'
'I have heard of Andoo,' he acknowledged. 'They raise an exceptionally fine breed of people there, but I never heard of your country. In fact I have never seen a man before with blue eyes and yellow hair. Are all the people of Cal —'
' California ,' I prompted.
'—of California like you?'
'Oh, no! There are all colors among us, of hair and eyes and skin.'
'But how can you breed true to type then?' he demanded.
'We don't,' I had to admit.
'Rather shocking,' he said, half to himself. 'Immoral—racially immoral. Well, be that as it may, your system seems to have produced a rather fine type at that; and now, if you will come with me, we shall return to Havatoo.
'May I ask,' I inquired, 'if we return as guests or as prisoners?'
He smiled, just the shadow of a smile. 'Will that make any difference—as to whether you return with me or not?'
I glanced up at the armed men behind him and grinned. 'None,' I replied.
'Let us be friends,' he said. 'You will find justice it Havatoo. If you deserve to remain as a guest, you will be treated as a guest—if not—' he shrugged.
* * * * *
As we reached the top of the little hillock we saw, just behind it, a long, low car with transverse seats and no top. It was the first motor car that I had seen on Venus. The severity of its streamlines and its lack of ornamentation suggested that it was a military car.
As we entered the rear seat with Ero Shan his men took their places in the forward seats. Ero Shan spoke a word of command and the car moved forward. The driver was too far from me, and hidden by the men between us, to permit me to see how he controlled the car, which moved forward over the uneven ground smoothly and swiftly.
Presently as we topped a rise of ground we saw the city of Havatoo lying white and beautiful before us. From our elevation I could see that it was built in the shape of a half circle with the flat side lying along the water front, and it was entirely walled.
The river curves to the right below the city, and the direct route that we followed returning to it brought us to a gate several miles from the river. The gate itself was of magnificent proportions and an architectural gem, bespeaking a high order of civilization and culture. The city wall, of white limestone, was beautifully carved with scenes that I took to portray the history of the city or of the race that inhabited it, the work having apparently been conceived and executed with the rarest taste; and these carvings extended as far as I could see.
When one considers the fact that the wall on the land side is about eight miles long and on the river side about five miles, and that all of it is elaborately carved, one may understand the vast labor and the time required to complete such an undertaking along both faces of a twenty-foot wall.
As we were halted at the gate by the soldiers on guard I saw emblazoned above the portal, in the characters of the universal Amtorian language, 'TAG KUNI VOO KLAMBAD,' Gate of the Psychologists.
Beyond the gate we entered a broad, straight avenue that ran directly toward the center of the water front. It was filled with traffic—cars of various sizes and shapes, running swiftly and quietly in both directions. There was
