The zed-ray went off. We gazed down our searchlight which clung to the dome of the distant enemy vessel. We could see movement there. "The telescope," Grantline ordered. The dynamos hummed. The telescope finder glowed and clarified. On the deck of the ship we saw the brigands working with the assembling of tiny ore carts. A deck landing port was open. The ore carts were being carried out through a port lock and down a landing incline. And on the rock outside, we saw several of the carts, tiny rail sections and the section of an ore chute. Miko was unloading his mining apparatus! He was making ready to come up for the treasure! The discovery, startling as it was, nevertheless, was far overshadowed by an imperative danger alarm from our main building. Brigands were outside on our ledge! Miko's searchbeam, sweeping the ledge a moment before, had carefully avoided revealing them. It had been done just for that purpose, no doubt--to make us feel sure the ledge was unoccupied and thus to guard against our own light making the search. But there was a brigand group close outside our walls! By the merest chance the radiating glow from our searchray had shown the helmeted figures scurrying for shelter. Grantline leaped to his feet. We rushed from the rear port exit which was nearest us. The giant bloated figures had been seen running along the outside of the connecting corridor, in this direction. But before we ever got there, a new alarm came. A brigand was crouching at a front corner of the main building! His hydrogen heat torch had already opened a rift in the wall! XXXV "In with you!" ordered Grantline. "Get your helmets on! How many? Six. Enough--get back there, Williams--you were last. The lock won't hold any more." I was one of the six who jammed into the manual exit lock. We went through it; in a moment we were outside. It was less than three minutes since the prowling brigand had been seen. Grantline touched me just as we emerged. "Don't wait for orders? Get him." "That fellow with the torch--" "Yes. I'm with you." We went out with a rush. We had already discarded our shoe and belt weights. I leaped, regardless of my companions. The scurrying Martians had disappeared. Through my visor bull's-eye I could see only the Earthlit rocky surface of the ledge. Beside me stretched the dark wall of our building. I bounded toward the front. The brigand with the torch had been at the front corner. I could not see him from here; he had been crouching just around the angle. I had a tiny bullet projector, the best weapon for short range outdoors. I was aware of Grantline close behind me. It took only a few of my giant leaps. I handed at the corner, recovered my balance and whirled around to the front. The Martian was here, a giant misshapen lump as he crouched. His torch was a little stab of blue in the deep shadow enveloping him. Intent upon his work, he did not see me. Perhaps he thought his fellow men had broken our exits by now.