But where were they? Two hundred yards away was a great battle square of centaurpedes, setting themselves with idiot bravery to stop his invincible machine. Mandibles opened wide, they crouched back, ready to spring and rend the indestructible steel. Were the 'pede dictators in the center of that battalion? Theoretically, they should be, but Mac knew better than to expect the obvious. Were they brain-like, slug-like, or did they hide their vast significance behind protective disguises of mediocrity, pretending to be nothing but ordinary centaurpedes? The tractor lumbered on across the mud, smashed into that wall of nauseating bodies. The cracking and squashing made his stomach heave, yet he kept grinding ahead. "Damn your murdering hearts, where are you?" he bit out. He crashed through the battalion, started to turn back for another charge. Instead, he clamped his teeth together and continued savagely. Far before him, he had seen several 'pedes, identical with the rest, racing in different directions toward the ocean. They had set up a rear guard to cover their retreat. He wrenched the wheel aside. _Crack!_ "One!" he gloated. Another was scampering furiously twenty feet ahead. He drove down on it, exulted when he heard the treads crush the hard chitinous shell. "Two!" "Three!" The revolting beasts were fleet, but the tractor was swifter. One after another, he ran them down, his lips twisting in a fierce grin each time he heard one squash beneath his treads. At last, two miles from camp, he stopped. He had destroyed the last 'pede trying to escape to the ocean. But had he killed the brains that had directed this gigantic assault on the mine? * * * * * He pivoted and started back to the compound. The 'pedes were still ambling around, following their single purposes. He could never have got through if the ultra-short wave hadn't actually blanketed the brains' commands. But were the animals merely disorganized only as long as the broadcast continued, or had their rulers really been killed? Mac reached the mine. Limpy opened a gate in the concrete wall, and he drove through. A moment later, he was in the lookout wall, standing beside his two partners, gazing out the window. "Did you get them?" Limpy asked breathlessly. Mac leaned forward and watched with intent eyes. Slowly, like brainless creatures gradually coming to a decision, the endless mob of centaurpedes began moving away. They didn't march, as they had advanced to the attack. They wandered off in the general direction of the sea from which they had sprung. "I got them," Mac said. He straightened and turned around wearily. "Get in touch with Adonis City, Limpy. Give them the wave length that blankets the queen 'pedes' instructions. Tell them to relay the information to mines that are under siege." "We've won?" asked Swede incredulously.