A lightning-like bolt swept from the end of the line toward Joel who was firing wildly and hitting nothing. A scream rang out in my helmet. I watched with horror as his spacesuit turned cherry red and actually melted in front of my eyes. Then I fired. The explosive shell blasted two Martians in the line. I fired again, splitting one half of the broken line into quarters. A third shot split the other half. One great thing about these explosive bullets, you didn't have to hit a target dead center. The fourth shot didn't even hit a Martian, but the ground at his feet, and he went the way of all cyanogenic plant men. The Martians at the causeway were now getting ready to give me some of the medicine that had ended the career of Warner Joel. But I swung my gun in their direction and blasted again. Before I could fire once more, Axel, who apparently had stopped to reload his rifle, began to bombard them from the rear. The Martians couldn't stand being blasted from two directions at once. The line broke and they dashed to the north. My car swept to the entrance of the causeway and across. Axel's helmeted figure rose from behind his barricade of rocks. He didn't even take time to wave, but I saw his eyes, full of deep appreciation because I'd arrived at a most critical time. Then he dashed to the spot where the remains of Warner Joel lay steaming. The Martians who had killed Joel were pouring across the moat at the rear of the spaceship. "Watch the front, Bill!" Axel cried as he leveled his rifle. There was nothing to watch. The Martians had been routed. I fumbled with my belt and unfastened myself while Axel aimed his gun at the Pnyx Martians. His semi-automatic fire was sending geysers of poisonous Martian flesh out of the ditch when I jumped off the car. The bass-chirps of the Martian voices were screaming panic now. It wasn't necessary to know their language to realize all the fight was gone from their hearts--or whatever they used for a heart--as Axel pumped explosive shots into their midst. Part of them was trying to scale the back wall of the ditch. Others were stampeding, like cattle, in all directions. Those that came my way were halted by the causeway and now I opened fire on these. Gail had emerged from the car and now she stood without cover at the edge of the moat, shooting at the Martians with her pistol. "Get back, Gail!" I screamed. A single Martian sent a flash of flame toward her. It sparked off her helmet. Then she realized she was exposed and jumped behind the barricade Axel had used. Axel's gun had stopped firing now and he was starting to reload. I shifted my aim, pouring the rest of my magazine into the group nearest him. They had no way of knowing it was not his gun. Even their radar senses could not follow the path of a bullet. It was a massacre, but the kind of slaughter that saved lives.