"Very much, and she is a very smart woman who has ways of getting what she wants. I am very much afraid she will take you with her to space when they go, and leave poor Carna in her ruined city, with no one but the wild beasts and the dead bodies. This will be the end of this place." "You are wrong!" I smiled, thinking the girl was flattering me. "No, not wrong, dear earthman. I am very much afraid of the future, for I am to lose you, but I have a way of avoiding that." "And what is that way?" "You will find out when the time comes, and you may like it very much!" "Let's get away from this wall where we can see what's going on...." We plodded across the level, grassy valley floor, walking backward some of the time, watching the great circling ships above the city's center, and the lancing blue paths of their rays stabbing at some darting adversary high above them. Then from the western sky came a series of round low shapes, speeding so rapidly the eye could hardly distinguish them from the darkly glowing horizon. After their passage, in a close series, came the air-scream of falling missiles, high-pitched, then came a terrific cannonading of explosions. Fountains of fire sprang up in exact sequence, one after the other. The ground shook and shook underfoot, each shock seeming greater, to add its strength to the one preceding it. I knew that this was for the Jivros the end of their plans on earth. Simultaneous with the arrow-swift flight, two great blazing lances of blue fire shot downward from the ships far overhead, transfixed the circling spheres one after the other. They tilted, plunged slowly, faster and faster--ended in great splashes of fire and sound somewhere in the city below. I mopped my face. The night was hot, and relief flooded me. "We got out of there just in time, Miss Mystic!" She nodded, her white smile in the night a beautiful thing. "What is this Miss Mystic word you use?" "It means Zoorph, Carna. It is U.S.A. speech." "U.S.A. speech," she parroted. "Some day I will talk U.S.A. speech, too, like you!" "I hope so. This tongue of yours gives me cramps in the jaws." We plodded on across the grass, heading for the cliff ledge where we had met. I knew no where else to go. Quite suddenly came a soft sussuration overhead, a light-beam lanced down, pinning us there. I tossed Carna aside, rolled myself out of the path of light. But mercilessly the light beam spread, until we were again within the circle of illumination. But no blue death ray followed. The dark shape settled to the earth beside us, and the door in the side opened. I sprang to my feet in glad surprise to see Holaf in the round doorway, motioning us to enter. He cried: "Come, the day of the Jivro has ended, there is work now for men to do!"