"Did they do anything to you, Bill?" Axel asked. "Are you all right?" There was a worried note in his voice. "I'm okay," I assured him, "but these--these monsters are following me. Two of them. They look awful. No eyes, not even a head, just a hump on their backs like a camel and a fringe of arms on each side--" I glanced back. "Eight arms," I told him, counting them. "Stay where you are and I'll pick you up. Main thing is to get back to the ship. They don't run very fast and I think I can outdistance 'em on level ground." Then Dr. Spartan, who had heard our radio conversation, interrupted. "Why didn't you shoot them, Drake?" "I was in the car," I told him. "And they're two to one." He hesitated, then said, "Don't try to outrun them. Lead them slowly. Give me a chance to get there." "Yes, sir," I said. You don't argue with Spartan and I was too busy guiding the car over the rocky slope to answer anyhow. I don't think I could have outdistanced the Martians going uphill as I was. On level ground though, it would be different. My radio suddenly started to chatter with a series of strange noises. The Martians seemed to have discovered my wave length. It was a sound the like of which I'd never heard before. It's hard to describe it. The nearest comparison would be a cricket singing bass. Or perhaps the _dah_ of dit-dah Morse on a code transmitter. But the Martians had demonstrated that they could change frequencies, and vaguely I wondered how they'd do on television and FM channels. Suddenly they seemed to be trying to imitate my voice. "Yessir--yessir--yessir--" They were like talking crows. Finally I reached the lip of the canal and, rolling over the ridge, saw Axel standing beside a pile of light crates he'd stacked up beside the rocket ship. He waved his hands and I steered toward him. Beyond him came Spartan, in the other Mars-car, hitting high speed on the sand. I thought of the garrison rushing to rescue the besieged wagon train in the woolly frontier days. "Bill Drake!" Axel called, his voice wedging into the chattering Martian voices. "Billdrake--billdrake--" mocked the Martians. I braked the car and Axel scrambled toward the locks as the Martians appeared on the rim of the canal behind me. Axel took one apprehensive glance in that direction before he climbed aboard. "Tain't human!" he gasped, which was the understatement of the solar system. Dr. Spartan's Mars-car halted about two hundred yards south of us. I saw him climbing out of the locks, his rifle in his hand. "Tanetooman," chanted the Martians. "This way, Drake!" Spartan signaled with his arms that I was to pass to his left. "Thiswaydrake--" screamed my earphones in raucous echo. "Billdrake--tanetooman--yessir--" "Aw, shuddup," said Axel to the Martians. "Shuddup--" Axel looked at me and shook his head at the Martian reply. I wheeled the Mars-car around behind Spartan's, halting in a position which would allow me to watch.