But she struck a great gong sharply. Instantly, the dazzling light-wall blazed forth to shield her. Guards leaped from nowhere to seize the Earthman. Their blows made his head ring. "To the pit with him!" Vydys cried shrilly. "To the pit!" Craig's world resolved into a nightmare of dank corridors and blows and blackness. Then, suddenly, he was in the open once again, tottering on the rim of a deep, walled trench that ran about a side-shaft of the Vydys' tower like a sort of moat. "Look down, alien!" Blear-eyed, Craig stared down into the pit. Great tusks speared up at him. The bellow of an enraged djevoda rang in his ears. Vydys said, "You and your Baemae friends are said to be clever with these creatures, alien. Especially with a whip." She turned to one of her retinue. "Give him the lash!" The man brought out a long Baemae whip and handed it to Craig. "Down with him!" In seconds, Craig swung into the moat at the end of a rope-loop. He was still staggering when the djevoda charged, thundering its rage. Craig lashed out with the whip. But without avail. The stinging lash brought a new roar of fury from the great creature. Savagely, it lunged again. * * * * * Barely in time, Craig leaped out of the way. Desperately, he ran through the trench in search of some exit, some chance for escape. There was none. Again the djevoda charged. Once more Craig side-stepped in the nick of time. Above him, on the pit's rim, Vydys laughed her silvery, sadistic laugh. Hate surged through the Earthman ... hate mingled with fear. Was he to die here--tusked high into the air; trampled under the great hammer-feet? If at least the hell-bitch above only could die with him--! He fell back to the moat's far edge ... but not at the djevoda. No. Higher, this time. Higher--and straight at Vydys! The long lash slashed through the air. Almost lazily, it seemed, it drifted. The snapper lifted ... curled ... wrapped round Vydys' slim waist. She screamed, then. Too late. Because now Craig was surging back on the whipstock with all his strength, a savage jerk. The woman lurched forward, across the parapet. Down the steep face she slid, straight into the trench. Along the rim, tumult erupted. Guards shouted. Serfs raced this way and that. Fire-guns blazed down at the djevoda. A ladder appeared, shoved down from above. Dropping the whipstock, Craig lunged for the ladder. A guard was scrambling down it. Catching him from behind, Craig knocked him sprawling. When another head appeared above the parapet, Craig butted low, not slowing. Blood--blows--violence. A race for the postern. As from afar, Craig caught the echo of Vydys' scream: "The alien! Stop him!" So she still lived.... More guards. Veering, Craig darted through the nearest door and pounded through a maze of echoing corridors and stairways. If only he could reach the roof, his saucer.... Locked doors. Dead-end hallways. Men racing towards him.