He fired once more to check them, then sprang for the wide entrance of the tunnel. He fired again back of him, shooting wildly as he ran, then saw Loah as she came from her hiding place with the flame-thrower ready in her hand. "Quick!" he gasped. "Get back!" Then, with her, he was running stumblingly through the dark. * * * * * There could be no escape; even while they fled he knew it. And yet they almost made it--though the end, when it came, was one that neither could possibly have foreseen. They were following a wide passage, one of the countless thoroughfares of the Reds. It was deserted. Loah flashed her light freely. Ahead of them the passage turned. Just short of that bend was a rift in the rocks. "There!" Loah gasped. "Turn there. It will take us back to the _jana_." But the words were followed by a flash of green from dead ahead. The flames that made it came quickly after and a dozen of the red warriors were before them, the light of their weapons slanting just above Rawson's head. His rifle was half raised--they would at least fight to the last. Then he realized that the green death was not swinging downward. From behind them, in the corridor through which they had raced, came a chorus of whistling shouts. Rawson whirled to find more of the red fighters, and again, though their hissing green flames were held ready, they did not descend. A priest, copper-colored, shining resplendently in the weird glow, detached himself from the group and stepped forward under the protection of their weapons. Loah's hand was depressing the muzzle of Rawson's rifle. "Wait!" she said. "He wishes to speak." * * * * * The priest stopped and addressed them. Loah answered; and to Rawson it seemed horrible that her lips and throat should be called upon to form those whistling words. Then she turned toward him. "He says they will not harm you now if you surrender. Later, when they select a new ruler, he may order you set free." Rawson was doing some quick thinking. The priest was lying, clumsily, childishly, but it might be he could bargain with them. "Tell them this," he ordered Loah: "they are to let you go free--let you go right now! If they do that, I'll lay down my gun. If they don't, that priest will die before they get me. I don't think you can make it," he added, "but go back to the _jana_. Don't stop for anything. Drive it as fast as you can; you may still get there before Gor does his stuff. And take the flame-thrower in case you are followed--" He stopped; Loah was laughing. "Did you really think, Dean-San, that I would desert you?" Again she laughed softly--laughing squarely in the face of that waiting death, a laugh that was half a sob, that caught suddenly in her throat as she stared at Dean. He could not read the look in her eyes as their expression changed. "Yes," she said slowly, "yes, you are right. If I stay we both die, quickly."