But Mark had reached to his inner pocket, and brought out his secret flat box. "Remember this, Janus? Good Lord, but I ought to be blasted for forgetting it! You always knew it wasn't a camera--well, now you're going to see it in action!" "Good, lad! I hope you've got something there. Here they come again!" * * * * * This time the Perlacs had massed their forces, and they came in two wide flanking movements aimed at the ends of the barricades. "Let them get close," Janus passed the word to the men, as they hurried down to the left. "Then give them your grenades--all you've got!" Grim-faced they waited. Mark once more touched the release stud on his box, exulted as the coils hummed into power. "Now!" Janus yelled at last, and swept his beam into play. Simultaneously the grenades rained outward. The terrain erupted in geysers of blackened grass and fleshy fragments. But determinedly the Perlacs came, and their cross-bow shafts filled the air. Despair began to touch the Earthmen now. It was obvious the fanatical Perlacs were going to make this a war to extinction, and there could be but one final result. The Perlacs outnumbered them a hundred to one. If only they could have gotten the new electronic weapons ready in time! Even their grenades were running low now. Grim-lipped, Mark waited for the next onrush. He passed his neutro to a neighbor and concentrated on his box. Its power had been proven in minor tests, but this would be the maximum! The wave came. More of them now than before. Mark stepped for a moment into the open, heedless of the shafts. The box, held waist high, looked for all the world like a camera.... But the result was devastatingly different! The men felt a violent holocaust of air around them, rushing away from all sides. For seconds they couldn't breathe or move! The temperature dropped so suddenly that they were literally frozen where they stood! Then warmer air came pressing in again but still they didn't move, because now they were staring--staring at the miracle. In a hundred-yard area before their barricade the mass of Perlacs were motionless, many of them arrested in grotesque postures! Others had literally burst outward. But all were dead, and now they began to topple over, like frozen statutes! Another wave was coming behind, just beyond the area. Now they wheeled and fled for the forest. Quickly Mark adjusted the sights and gave them another burst. The same thing happened. The rush of air, the sudden drop in temperature--and the horde was a mass of frozen corpses. But this time, the box became hot in Mark's hands, burning them severely, and he quickly dropped it. At the other end of the line the defenders weren't doing so well. The Perlacs had gained that end of the barricade, and the battle was furious and to the death. "Come on!" Mark raced for that end, followed by the others. But now Mark couldn't use his weapon, for it would mean blasting Earthmen and Perlacs alike!