“Oh, Fen, what did you do? Where is Bhool? Did you let him out?” Fen’s words were faint. “Yes--he--was hungry--and then--he killed me.” A kindly act at the last, and the reward was death! Life can be so tragic, so cruel! Fen lay very still, with eyes closed. But in a moment he opened them. He tried to focus them on Arturo. “You--will guard--my little daughter--” He drew Nereid’s head down to him. He seemed to sigh; and then he lay unbreathing. There was no sound but Nereid’s sobbing. Arturo stood before me. “I want to go with you, Jeff. You know that!” “Yes. I know it.” I smiled into his earnest, sorrowful eyes. “But three of us will be enough, Arturo. And Nereid needs you.” “I just wanted you to know I ought to go with you.” He turned away. We three were ready. Entt was equipped with his black robe. I carried my weapon. He had shown me how to advance the charge from its storage battery to the firing chamber; and how to fire it. An oblong thing of black metal the size of my hand, it discharged a stab of radiance with an effective range of perhaps a hundred feet. Or at fifty, with an altered form of its vibration, the radiance, like an electro-magnet, would seize an object, grip it, hold it. “Is our _arras_ ready, Entt?” “Yes.” We had one giant _arras_ which could carry all three of us. There was a small aërocar available at the tunnel-mouth--the tunnel into which the Middge people were retreating. Entt had left the aëro there. Tad demanded: “You’re sure it will be there?” “Yes. It is hidden as I told you.” I stood again with Arturo. “You take Nereid and three _arras_, Arturo.” “Yes, Jeff.” He was docile now. No more forcing of his own ideas. “We’ll load one with our things, lead one, and ride the third.” “Exactly. And wait at the tunnel-entrance. You’ll find our _arras_ there, where the aëro is now. Wait there, Arturo--we’ll join you if we can. But not too long. Understand? If you know that the gates have broken and we have failed, ride on. Will you?” He nodded. His eyes were full. “I may not see you again, Jeff. Good-by.” I clapped his shoulder. “Good-by, Arturo. Good-by, Nereid.” We left them standing together gazing after us. * * * * * To any one who cared to look, our giant _arras_ was loping through the gloom unmounted. We clung to its long saddle, Entt in front, guiding it. We went in great bounding leaps, over the river-bridge, with the hot wind rushing past us. Tad’s solid body before me was a vague black blur, and I could not see Entt at all. We took the road Tad had already traversed toward the fire caldron, but we soon swung aside. We came at last to the tunnel-entrance. Activity here. Twin light-beacons mounted on the rocks marked it for the arriving Middge people. They were coming in groups; a throng of them surged in confusion at the broad entrance, passing the guards, starting on their long upward march.