* * * * * The Mercurian retched and reeled. Before he could recover, Jarl drove past him--clawing the grenade up from the table, jerking out the pin. "Corvett, no--!" shrieked a raider. Another whipped up a ray-gun. Jarl spun about. His hand ached with the strain of holding down the spring of the bomb's curved firing lever. But fierce exhilaration surged within him. With a shout he swung the grenade high above his head, where all could see. "Look, _chitzas_!" One and all, they froze in their tracks, eyes suddenly aglisten with the glassy sheen of fear. Even Sais' dark, lovely face was all at once a mirror of panic. "Shoot, curse you!" Jarl cried, and his voice rang with fierce triumph, with exultation. "Shoot and be damned! Because if I die, I'll take you with me!" Bor Legat choked, "Corvett--!" Jarl whirled upon him. "Yes, you _starbo_! Take me! But remember--if I let go this firing lever, the spring completes the contact for me!" "No--!" croaked Legat, and his shell-like body plates were clacking. "No, Corvett! That thing would blast us all to atoms!" Jarl said, "That's better." Coolly, he lowered the bomb and held it cradled between his hands. "Sais...." "Yes, Jarl...." Quickly, supplely, she moved forward. "We're leaving now," Jarl clipped. And then, to the chieftains: "If you want to live, don't try to follow." Hate hammered at him, a living thing--the hate of the wolf-pack that sees its prey escaping. Fists clenched, and gun-hands quivered, and eyes drew to murderous, icy diamonds. Jarl laughed aloud--scornful, contemptuous. The woman at his side, looking neither to right nor left, he strode to and through the door; closed it behind him. Sais' taut whisper cut through the darkness: "Jarl, they'll come after us! They'll shoot at a distance--" Wordless, heart racing, he pushed her forward faster. She stumbled across the final threshold, out into the night and the Place of the Raiders. Jarl threw a quick glance back. Already, behind them, the door to the inner room was opening. Cursing, he lobbed the proton grenade back over his shoulder; then bolted after Sais. The night exploded into crashing chaos. A wall of force smashed Jarl to the cobbles. Screams and shrieks slashed through dust and smoke and falling debris. But he was outside, the wall between him and the blast. Scrambling to his feet, he dragged Sais up. Together, they raced for the blackness of the native quarter.... CHAPTER VI They ran through the murk of Ceres' night till their lungs caught fire, and their eyes rolled up, and their quaking legs could no longer hold them. Then, at last, sobbing and panting, they fell in a heap in a rubble-strewn alley, heedless of time or place or peril.