into action."
* * * * *
We needed it the moment we turned into the main corridor, for here thepassage was broad, and in order to prevent the creatures from flankingus, we had to spread our front and rear guards until they were no morethan two thin lines.
Seeing their advantage, the Aranians rushed us. At a word from me, theray operators went into action, and I did what I could with mycomparatively ineffective pistol. Between us, we swept the passageclean as far as we could see--which was not far, for the reddish dustof disintegration hung in the quiet air, and the light of our _ethon_lamps could not pierce it.
For a moment I thought we would have clear sailing; Correy and his menwere doing fine work behind us, and our ray was sweeping everythingbefore us.
Then we came to the first of the intersecting passages, and aclattering horde of Aranians leaped out at us. The ray operatorsstopped them, but another passage on the opposite side was spewing outmore than I could handle with my pistol.
Two of the hairy creatures were fairly upon me before the ray swung tothat side and dissolved them into dust. For an instant the partystopped, checked by these unexpected flank attacks.
And there would be more of these sallies from the hundreds of passageswhich opened off the main corridor; I had no doubt of that. And therethe creatures had us: our deadly ray could not reach them out ahead;we must wait until we were abreast, and then the single ray could workupon but one side. Correy needed every man he had to protect our rear,and my pistol was not adequate against a rush at such close quarters.That fact had just been proved to me with unpleasant emphasis.
It was rank folly to press on; the party would be annihilated.
"Down this passage, men," I ordered the two ray operators. "We'll haveto think up a better plan."
They turned off into the passage they had swept clean with their ray,and the rest of the party followed swiftly. A few yards from the maincorridor the passage turned and ran parallel to the corridor we hadjust left. Doors opened off this passage on both sides, but all thedoors were open, and the cubicles thus revealed were empty.
* * * * *
"Well, sir," said Correy, when we had come to the dead end of thepassage, "now what?"
"I don't know," I confessed. "If we had two ray machines, we couldmake it. But if I remember correctly, it's seven hundred yards, yet,to the first of the tunnels leading to the surface--and that meansseveral hundred side passages from which they can attack. We can'tmake it."
"Well, we can try again, anyway, sir," Correy replied stoutly. "Betterto go down fighting than stay here and starve, eh?"
"If you'll pardon me, gentlemen," put in Inverness, "I'd like to makea suggestion. We can't return the way we came in; I'm convinced ofthat. It was the sheerest luck that Commander Hanson wasn't broughtdown a moment ago--luck, and excellent work on the part of the two rayoperators.
"But an analysis of our problem shows that our real objective is toreach the surface, and that need not be done the most obvious way, byreturning over the course by which we entered."
"How, then?" I asked sharply.
"The disintegrator ray you have there should be able to cut a passagefor us," said Inverness. "Then all we need do is protect our rearwhile the operators are working. Once on the surface, we'll be able tofight our way to the ship, will we not?"
"Of course! You should be in command, Inverness, instead of myself."His was the obvious solution to our difficulty; once proposed, I feltamazingly stupid that the thought had not occurred to me.
I gave the necessary orders to the ray men, and they startedimmediately, boring in steadily at an angle of about forty-fivedegrees.
The reddish dust came back to us in choking clouds, and the Aranians,perhaps guessing what we were doing--at least one of their number hadseen how the ray could tunnel in the ground--started working aroundthe angle of the passage.
* * * * *
At first they came in small groups, and our pistols readily disposedof them, but as the dust filled the air, and it became increasinglydifficult to see their spidery bodies, they rushed us in great masses.
Correy and I, shoulder to shoulder, fired at the least sign ofmovement in the cloud of dust. A score of times the rushes of theAranians brought a few of them scuttling almost to our feet; inside ofa few minutes the passage was choked, waist high, with the riddledbodies--and still they came!
"We're through, sir!" shouted one of the ray operators. "If you canhold them off another fifteen minutes, we'll have the hole largeenough to crawl through."
"Work fast!" I ordered. Even with Inverness, Brady, and the three ofthe _Ertak's_ crew doing what they could in those narrow quarters, wewere having a hard time holding back the horde of angry, desperateAranians. Tipene was useless; he was cowering beside the rayoperators, chattering at them, urging them to hurry.
Had we had good light, our task would have been easy, but the passagewas choked now with dust. Our _ethon_ lamps made little more than adismal glow. The clattering Aranians were almost within leapingdistance before we could see them; indeed, more than one was stoppedin mid-air by a spray from one pistol or another.
"Ready, sir," gasped the ray man who had spoken before. "I think we'vegot it large enough, now."
"Good!" I brought down two scuttling Aranians, so close that theirtwitching legs fell in an untidy heap almost at my feet. "You gofirst, and protect our advance. Then the rest of you; Mr. Correy and Iwill bring up the--"
"No!" screamed Tipene, shouldering aside the ray men. "I...." Hedisappeared into the slanting shaft, and the two ray men followedquickly. The three members of the crew went next; then Brady andInverness.
Correy and I backed toward the freshly cut passage.
"I'll be right behind you," I snapped, "so keep moving!"
* * * * *
Correy hesitated an instant; I knew he would have preferred the placeof danger as the last man, but he was too good an officer to protestwhen time was so precious. He climbed into the slanting passage theray had cut for us, and as he did so, I heard, or thought I heard, acry from beyond him, from one of those ahead.
I gave Correy several seconds before I followed; when I did start, Iplanned on coming fast, for in that shoulder-tight tube I would beutterly at the mercy of any who might attack from behind.
Fairly spraying the oncoming horde, I drove them back, for a moment,beyond the angle in the corridor; then I fairly dived into the tunneland crawled as fast as hands and knees could take me toward theblessed open air.
I heard the things clatter into the space I had deserted. I heard themscratching frantically in the tunnel behind me, evidently handicappedby their long legs, which must have been drawn up very close to theirbodies.
Light came pouring in on me suddenly, and I realized that Correy hadwon free. Behind me I could hear savage mandibles snapping, and coldsweat broke out on me. How close a terrible death might be, I had nomeans of knowing--but it was very close.
My head emerged; I drew my body swiftly out of the hole and snatched agrenade from my belt. Instantly I flung it down the slanting passage,with a shout of warning to my companions.
With a muffled roar, the grenade shook the earth; sent a brown cloudspattering around us. I had made a desperate leap to get away, buteven then I was covered by the shower of earth.
I looked around. Trapdoors were open everywhere, and from hundreds ofthese openings, Aranians were scuttling toward us.
But the ray operators were working; not only the little portablemachine, but the big projectors on the _Ertak_, five or six hundredyards away; laying down a deadly and impassable barrage on either sideof us.
* * * * *
"They got Tipene, sir!" said Correy. "He dodged out ahead of the raymen, and two of them pounced on him. They were dragging him away,tearing him. The ray men wiped them out. Tipene was already dead--tornto fragments, they said
. Back to the ship now, sir?"
"Back to the ship," I nodded, still rather breathless. "Let the raymen cover our retreat; we can take care of those between us and theship with our pistols--and the _Ertak's_ projectors will attend to ourflanks. On the double, men!"
We fought every step of the way, in a fog of reddish dust from the bigdisintegrator rays playing on either side of us--but we made it, atorn, weary, and bedraggled crew.
"Quite an engagement, sir," gasped Correy, when we were safely insidethe _Ertak_. "Think they'll remember this little visit of ours, sir?"
"I know we'll remember it, anyway," I said, shaking some of the dustof disintegration from my clothes. "Just at the moment, I'd welcome atour of routine patrol."
"Sure, sir," grinned