This time he did hear his interceptor. He ran quickly back, keeping a close observation on the wall to his left as he went. Soon he found the hiding place he sought. Probably he had noted it in passing before, and had kept it in mind for an emergency of this kind. Where he stopped a connection in the sheet metal lining the tunnel had come loose and a dark space gaped open. He crawled inside. The man was stupid, I thought, if he expected the sentinel to pass without noticing the hiding place. The sentinel was not stupid. But then, we soon found out, neither was the alien. When the sentinel came to the opening he paused and jabbed tentatively into the dark cavity with the long sword that he carried in his hand. An instant later he stumbled forward, his knees gave beneath him, and he sagged to the floor. After a moment the alien emerged. A portion of his cloak was wrapped around one hand, his sword in the other. We understood then what had happened. He had grasped the sentinel's sword in his padded hand and jerked him forward, at the same time thrusting out with his own weapon. The sentinel had been wounded critically. However, the alien himself had not escaped unscathed. As he unbuttoned his jacket we could see a large spot of blood on the lighter surface of his blouse. He took a white cloth from a rear pocket of his trousers and pressed it between his jacket and the wound. When he went on this time he was very weary, obviously dredging up the last dregs of his strength. * * * * * In the short pause from action on the screen I looked around me. I was the only one in the room still sitting. The others had been unable to keep their seats during the excitement of watching the flight of the fighting alien. Some stood tensely or leaned against the walls, others paced restlessly, and one knelt on his hassock. I returned my attention to the outside half of the screen. The captain of the sentinels was letting gas into the tunnel! I felt a pang of regret. This was the beginning of the end. I wondered then if the alien did not have some inkling by this time that there was more to this than a mere seeking of revenge by Ctvar's kinsmen. He went on only a few strides farther before he detected the gas. Even then his ingenuity did not desert him. As he stood with his nostrils spread a noise above him caused him to look up. He spied a metal covered opening into the tunnel directly over his head. A dozen sentinels, I saw with a side glance, were grouped around it. After only a brief hesitation the alien returned to the Zade he had wounded a few minutes before. The man had ceased to move. Evidently he was dead. The alien tossed the dead sentinel across his shoulders and carried him to the spot beneath the metal cover. Here he reached up and tapped sharply. The cover moved back cautiously, and the alien rammed the corpse upward, head foremost.