There were plenty of noises down the hill, but no firing. Rick waited, rifle thrust out before him. Were they gathering for a rush? And who were they? Then he heard the noise of a dislodged pebble on the hillside below him. He strained to see, but it was too dark. He thought: If only I had the infrared light and the glasses! They were in one of the packs. Stupid not to have thought of them at once, he berated himself. Now he didn't dare leave his position until he found out what was below. There was the sound of a body sliding over low brush almost directly beneath him. He tensed, then as an afterthought, he reached into his pocket and brought out the flashlight. With it, he thought, he could blind the attacker and at the same time get a shot at him. He put his thumb on the button and waited. In a moment a figure loomed out of the darkness only a few feet away. Rick sucked in his breath and half lifted his rifle for a one-hand shot. At the same moment, he pressed the flashlight button. The beam shot squarely into the face of Worthington Ko! Rick put down his rifle quickly to extend a helping hand to the merchant. And then he noticed something. Shoot a light into the eyes of a man whose pupils are dilated by darkness and there is a definite reaction. If the eyes are normal, the pupils contract sharply. One of Ko's did. Rick saw them, magnified by the thick glasses. The other pupil didn't change at all. And as the fact registered, Rick saw something else. In one of Ko's hands was a grenade! In the instant that Rick grabbed up his rifle and swung it like a club, he guessed the answer. _Ko was the Chinese with the glass eye!_ CHAPTER XI The Goatskin Water Bag Several things happened almost at the same time. The attackers awoke to the fact that Rick's light made a good target and started shooting. Rick dropped the flashlight as his rifle, swung with one hand, barrel forward, connected solidly with the top of Ko's head. Scotty jumped to see what was happening. The grenade rolled from Ko's hand, and as it did, the safety handle flew off! Ko already had pulled the pin! A musket slug cracked into the rock inches from Rick's face and sent chips of stone into his face. He felt a sudden pain above one eye. But before he had time to realize what had happened, he was hauled back bodily into the crater by the guide. Scotty, who had recognized Ko in the beam of the fallen flashlight, grabbed the merchant by the collar and dragged him into the saucer with them. There was a five-second fuse on the grenade, but things had happened so fast there was a second to spare before it went off. Then for an instant there was a dull flash and the _cruuuump_ of the grenade. Shrapnel sliced through the woods below, bringing yells of fright. "The camera," Rick gasped. He got to his hands and knees, shaking his head. There was wetness across one eye that he thought was blood.