Barry reached for a spear. "They won't touch you as long as I'm alive," he promised. The sounds outside grew louder. "Go in through the door," he heard a voice command. "Chase the demon and his woman upward and out. Lart and I will attend to them." Xintel leaped to the upper room and began tossing down baskets. "Block the hatchway," she directed. "We will hold the middle room." Quickly Barry piled them across the opening, thrusting extra spears through the wovenwork and into the material of the floor. It was a flimsy barricade but better than nothing. Xintel loaded her crossbow. Barry stood beside her with a spear ready. "Now!" the voice outside boomed. Men poured into the lower room, shouting to keep up their courage. Xintel, her face pale, squinted along her crossbow and thumbed the trigger. A man screamed. A spear thwacked upward into the baskets as the girl put her strength against her weapon's reloading ratchet. "Can you hold them off a minute?" Barry whispered. She nodded, and he leaped to the upper room. One basket remained, and he found that by standing on it his head was just below the roof's lower surface. With his knife he began cutting into the matted fibers of the roof. He was nearly through when a whisper from above made him pause. "Psst! Lart, be very sure your thrust misses." That was Sanlan, Barry guessed. The other Venusian growled under his breath. "Komso will have your skin if you disobey," Sanlan warned. "But why?" Sanlan chuckled. "Have you no faith?" Barry resumed cutting, puzzled and suspicious, opening a hole just large enough to admit his head. He had guessed his position well, for Sanlan and Lart were standing with their backs toward him while they watched the hatchway. The Earthman withdrew silently, taking no chances that Sanlan's talk had been a trick to draw him out. Xintel glanced up as he dropped to the middle room. A confused discussion was in progress below, for no man wanted to be the first to rush the barricade. "Give me both your tube-weapons," Barry demanded. She turned her hips, allowing him to take them from her belt without putting down her crossbow or relaxing her vigilance. "Come at once when you hear me call," he directed. "We can't hold out forever. It's run or die." "Run? Where?" "Outside. It is our only chance." He leaped to the upper room again. A tube gun in each hand, he thrust his wrists through the hole he had cut. Sanlan and Lart were still waiting. "Perhaps you should have others break through the walls," Lart suggested impatiently. Sanlan shook his head. "There is plenty of time." But Sanlan's own time ran out just then as Barry triggered the weapon in his left hand. He died instantly. Lart whirled. Barry fired the other tube. Lart screamed and doubled over in agony. "Xintel!" Barry called. She came up with a rush. Lart was still alive, and he screamed as they emerged onto the roof. Answering yells came from below.