A semblance of reason came back to Guyard. For the past two years, he had, when not training Zurk's mind, been turning out gun after gun in his small, electric furnace. Those guns had been secretly distributed to the men of the city to use when the right moment came. And now he had come very nearly to ruining those chances. He began speaking, as if thinking aloud. "They have dismantled our spaceship, broken our radios and killed every man who has tried to get a message through to Earth. They have taken our youth, searched out our secret laboratories and killed our scientists." His eyes were blazing. "But this time we are going to fight!" Guyard knew that a fight with the powerful creatures from the Land of Darkness would mean annihilation for the Earthians. But there was no other apparent way. He turned again to the steel giant, his eyes misty. "Had Zurk not failed us," he said, "I should have built a hundred more like him. Insulated against the shock of the voltage guns, a hundred men of steel could have marched into the Land of Darkness and crushed our captors--wiped them out!" Marene, too, had turned to look at the giant. She went forward now, raised one of the huge hands and let it fall with a metallic, squeaking "z-zzurk." Long ago, as a small child, she had done that same thing, and because of the sound had named the giant "Zurk." She stood looking up into the expressionless eyes. When she spoke, her voice was like that of a small girl talking to a disobedient doll. "You must not fail us now, Zurk. We need you. You must help us!" Guyard went to her and put an arm about her shoulders. "It's no use," he said. "I've tried day after day. He makes no move." "But I'm certain he understands you," insisted the girl. "Sometimes I am certain I have caught a glow in his eyes. A glow of understanding." "He _does_ understand me!" Guyard was staring into the eyes again, tense with emotion. "His brain is a part of my very own! I have nurtured that brain with my own thoughts. I have trained it." Then he shook his head slowly. "But it's no use. It is too late. One of him would not be enough. There is no time to build more." Guyard was so busy with his own thoughts that he did not hear the scaly sound of feet upon the ladder leading up into the laboratory. He did not see the bone-crested head that came slowly up above the level of the floor behind him. His first indication of danger was a green-smeared arm that whipped about Marene and jerked her roughly away from him. Guyard's hand raked at his belt as he wheeled about. But the gun was not in his belt. Marene had taken it from him, had placed it beneath her own short coat. He was unarmed. Four of the creatures were already in the room, Zuldi among them. More were coming up through the trap door. Guyard knew that he was facing death, a hideous death. Zuldi and his monsters would gleefully claw him to pieces, throw him into the street.