They reached the street and plunged among its shadows, pounding with a dull reverberation of many feet along it. To the temple--the temple. The walls of its banking structures gave back the echo of that ceaseless rhythm. He glanced at Helmor. Set of lip and narrow-eyed, his features distorted by the rage that burned within him, the realization of this latest menace come upon him, the haste that had made him cast aside all dignity of station, and sent him thus on foot in a last endeavor to offset it, the Zollarian ran with a steady, unfaltering stride. "Zitu--father of all life--" Croft tensed his muscles, pressing the yielding form of Naia closer to his pounding heart. Save for her whispers, the clank and thud of the charging body of men, their heavy breathing, there was no sound in all the night. Behind them Berla was burning, with a lessening glare. Here only the moonlight cut in silver bands and purple shadows as they raced. He glanced up toward the azure heavens. His sweat-misted eyes beheld a drifting shape--huge, too regular of outline for a cloud--the glistening, glinting envelope of a blimp. "They follow us, beloved--Robur follows." He spoke in muffled tones to Naia--and found her purple eyes lifted darkly to his face. Out of one street and into another raced the straining Zollarian guard, and along it, and into another, and through that into a second monstrous square. The Temple of Bel! Croft knew it--recognized it, felt his spirit once more falter as he sensed its dark mass lightened by some interior radiance that shone redly between the mighty pillars, pricking out each massive column in an inky blackness--the light of Bel's lighted fire! Croft sensed its meaning--that Ptah had done his part and ignited the sacrificial flame in the body of the monstrous god, lifted his eyes from the fire-etched line of the pillars and found smoke curling in whirling streamers above the temple façade, lifted his soul in a prayer that Robur would also see it, mark it a beacon to guide his searching, and ran on toward the serried flight of steps before him, reached them and began to climb. * * * * * Up, up, he made his way with Helmor and the now panting guard. Up, up--and what sight of horror would that radiance between the ebon pillars reveal when they reached the top? He sickened before the question, found himself straining still ever upward, made dizzy by his anguished thought. "Ga and Azil--Zitu--father of life--have mercy--" Suddenly he lifted his arms and shifted the body of Naia, turning it more wholly toward him, as though thereby to hide from her eyes the light of the temple fires.