Doc Champ didn't seem to hear Rog Tanlu's order. He was staring down at that weird sight--staring at Eyoaoc Eiioiei. And for a moment I, too, ignored the warning. For that grotesque thing was fighting--fighting in a way that was an astonishing sight to witness. Thin, dazzling, rapierlike beams were flashing up at him and past him. But Eyoaoc Eiioiei was avoiding those hissing shafts with a skill not human--a dancing, cavorting nightmare thing, silhouetted against and enmeshed by those lethal streaks of fire; and I saw that now and then from his metal hand flashed a return blast of radiance. He was standing between his master and his master's assassins, and such wild courage and savagery brought into my throat a choked feeling of admiration. A hissing white shaft flashed within a foot of my head, bringing me to my senses. I made a grab at Doc Champ, intending to drag him down to safety. Then I realized that he was already lying flat behind that ancient block of rock. Rog Tanlu was on his knees. He had jerked that fountain-pen affair into action. Again and again I saw its belching bar of whiteness blast down toward the entrance. This man from the Past, despite his thin, pale face and affable manner, was also a fighter! And strangely, watching him and that wildly cavorting shadow that was Eyoaoc Eiioiei, I forgot all about the automatic in my pocket. For somehow this fantastic meeting of forces seemed remotely withdrawn from the affairs of Doc Champ and myself--although heaven knows we were mixed up in it at that moment close enough! I do not know for how long that flaming barrage lasted--perhaps only a moment or so, although it seemed longer. But suddenly it was over. Darkness and silence blotted down on us there in the cavern. "Doc!" I gasped. He didn't answer. But I heard someone moaning softly. I groped around in the darkness. Then my hand touched him. He didn't move, and somehow it needed only that touch to tell me the truth. "Rog Tanlu," I called hoarsely. "Rog Tanlu--!" "Here," came a voice, followed by a moan. The temporary blindness caused by those recent blasts of light was leaving my eyes. I began to see dimly. I crawled over to where Rog Tanlu was lying. "They accomplished their purpose," he muttered. "I--I'm--" "Where are you hurt?" I asked, my hands running over his shoulder and arm. That glove-fitting silk garment over his right arm and part of his chest felt strangely altered, brittle, charred. "The healing ray," he muttered. "The orlex ray--only that could help me ... and I know that you do not have it." A sound, the clump of heavy metal feet, caused me suddenly to jerk erect. My eyes tried to pierce the darkness. A grotesque form was emerging from the gloom--Eyoaoc Eiioiei. I drew back as that metal thing bent over Rog Tanlu. There followed a moment of excited voice-sounds, and once or twice Rog Tanlu answered, faintly, words I could not understand.