guards came running from elsewhere in the prison building.
Kim Idim thrust a foot and tripped one of the three charging Luunians. As his companions stumbled over him, Ethan stabbed fiercely at them, then slashed downward. It was a brief explosion of steel and motion, at the end of which the man who had tripped and one of the others lay dead, while the third reeled back with his shoulder torn.
"Guards! This way!" he screamed.
"The gates are open!" yelled Ptah.
Ethan grabbed Kim Idim's arm and ran with the old scientist and the Egyptian out of the torchlit prison into the darkness. They heard a roar of rage behind them, as a dozen Luunian warriors poured after them. Ethan raised his voice in a wild shout.
"Swain! Hank! This way!"
Through the dark streets answered Hank Martin's voice in a ringing yell. There was a rush of clattering hoofs, and out of the darkness rode the trapper and Lopez, Swain and Crewe.
"Where's the gal?" yelled Hank Martin.
"We can't reach her—we can only save her if we get Kim Idim back to his machine!" cried Ptah.
"Look out!" bellowed Lopez. "Here they come!"
The Luunian guards, mad with rage, were flinging themselves forward with insane ferocity.
"Kill the blasphemers who slew a Master!" their leader was shrieking.
Ethan whirled, as the Luunians charged. A blade tore his forearm open and another grazed his thigh as he struck in desperate defense.
Ptah was fighting beside him, and now the four mounted men spurred their plunging steeds amid the Luunians. Broadsword and saber, battle-ax and clubbed rifle, smashed down on the raging warriors. But the crazy, scrambling fight in the dark street went on. Ethan heard a rising uproar all through the surrounding streets. A great bell somewhere in the huge fortress had begun to clang in alarm.
John Crewe, his face flaming crimson, dropped from his horse beside the staggering Kim Idim. He thrust the old man up into his saddle and yelled hoarsely to Ethan.
"Ride for it! I'll hold back these godless ones!"
"No, we won't leave you here!" Ethan cried.
But as he shouted, a sword rang off Crewe's helmet, and the big Puritan sank to the ground, stunned.
Ethan and Ptah had gained the backs of their horses. The American tried to spur forward to where
John Crewe lay, but the maddened Luunians prevented him.
"If we don't git movin', we'll all leave our scalps here!" yelled Hank Martin urgently.
"You can't hope to save either Chiri or Crewe now!" Ptah shouted to Ethan. "Ride, or our only chance to rescue them later will be lost!"
Ethan realized that the Egyptian spoke truth. Luunian warriors were coming on the run from all directions, and the whole city seemed waking to the alarm.
"Out of Luun, then!" he cried.
They dug spurs into their horses and dashed through the dark streets, alive with emerging warriors.
Leaning over their horses' necks, Ethan and his comrades slashed fiercely at the startled Luunians who sought to halt them. The hooves of their mounts waked a thunder of echoes in the dark, narrow stone streets.
