"There will be light enough. See?" Kohrisan smothered his own torch against a wall, passed word back that all other torch-bearers should do the same. Soon all the lights were crushed into ash--but still the passageway glowed with a dull, gray illumination emanating from a tiny circle dimly seen before them. "The end of the tunnel, my Lords," whispered Kohrisan. "The moment for attack is ripe." "And where does the tunnel emerge?" asked Ramey. But the Burrower's answer was unsatisfactory. "Inside the palace," was the only information Kohrisan got from him. Thus, unknowing whether the next few minutes would see them stepping forward to greet friends or foes--but with every likelihood pointing toward the latter--the tiny army of invasion again moved forward. This time lightless, voiceless, and on creeping feet. * * * * * But at least a portion of their caution was a waste of energies. They need not have spoken in whispers. For as they approached nearer and ever nearer the circle which was the tunnel's exit, there smote their ears in full, reverberant cry the clash and clamor of battle waging wildly! Shouts of men, alive and angry, wounded and in pain, dying and fearful ... the strident clang of metal upon metal ... the _whirr!_ of arrows seeking fleshy targets ... these were the sounds which greeted their arrival. And as they gained the exit, Ramey saw whence originated this tumult. Also he saw, and with a sense of sick despair, why the Burrower ape had boasted his clan's tunnel was so well concealed from the search of men. For it was bitter battle between troops of Vibhishana and Ravana's hordes upon which Ramey and his rescue squad _looked down_! Down--from a tiny, frieze-embellished exit-hole near the roof of one of Lanka's highest chambers! Fully fifty feet _below_ them waged the conflict ... a battle between forces hopelessly outmatched. At the front of the decimated rebel group Ramey recognized men he knew, men who had been his companions in the dungeon. His great bulk sturdier still in battle-mail, Tauthus of Cush headed a handful of men desperately striving to hold a narrow doorway. Left flank of this party was protected by soldiers in the livery of Videlia ... loyalists rallied by Thalakka, whose sword was among their own. Even as Ramey watched, an arrow shattered on the breastplate of the faithful guardsman, and Thalakka tottered and fell, driven to his knees by the sheer driving impact of that shaft. A glowering foe, seeing Thalakka's plight, leaped forward, stabbing viciously at the fallen man. But as his sword lifted for the destroying blow, the young Martian who had opposed Tauthus yesterday in the gaol sprang forward to parry it with a thrust of his own. Thalakka's attacker fell, blood gushing from a great wound in his breast, and even as he rolled lifeless to the floor, Thalakka was on his feet again.