Jim was being dragged forward, with Lucille beside him, old Parrish following, still making a futile struggle for life, while pitiful screeches issued from his mouth. Jim saw the revolving arms descend within a foot of his head. One more fight--one more, the last. Suddenly, with loud yells, a band of Drilgoes leaped forward from the head of the stairs and rushed upon the struggling priests and victims. And, dark as it was, Jim recognized their leader--Cain. And Cain knew Lucille. As the priests rallied for a desperate resistance, Cain hurled his great body through the air, landing squarely upon the shoulders of the priest nearest the revolving arms, and knocking him flat. Then the arms caught priest and Drilgo, and the steel hooks dug deep into their flesh. A screech of terror, a howl that reverberated through the amphitheatre, and nothing remained of either but a heap of macerated flesh. But in that instant Jim had fought free again. He caught Lucille and dragged her back toward the Atom Smasher. * * * * * Tode had already broken from his captors and was working at it frantically. "Hold on!" screeched old Parrish. "Hold on!" They had a moment's leeway. The Drilgoes had driven the priests back into the hooks. With awful shrieks the fanatics were yielding up their lives, in the place of their selected victims. But more Drilgoes were pouring up the stairs. A moment's leeway, and no more, before the savage band would impale the four upon their stone-pointed spears. There was not the slightest chance that they would be able to make their identity known. "For God's sake hurry!" Jim yelled in Tode's ear. The wheels were revolving, a stream of violet light, leaping out of the central tunnel, cast a lurid illumination upon the scene. But it was too late. A score of Drilgoes, with leveled spears, were rushing on the four. "Hold tight!" screeched Parrish. He thrust his arm into his breast, and pulled out a little lever. Jim recognized it and remembered. It was the instrument of universal death--the uranium release of untold forces of cataclysmic depredation. "Take that!" screamed the old man, inserting the lever into the secret groove in the Atom Smasher and jerking it in the direction of the priests. CHAPTER XI _Tode's Last Gamble_ A roar that seemed to rend the heavens followed. Roar upon roar, as the infinite momentum of the disintegrating uranium struck obstacle after obstacle. The Drilgoes vanished, the amphitheatre melted away, walls and roof.... Overhead were the moon and stars.