"Gone!" Jim gasped. "That damned Jahnt!"

Abruptly Meeta cried, "Look! He is over there!"

With his hiding place discovered, Jahnt leaped suddenly erect from the shadows of a rocky niche. A knife was in his hand. I was nearest to him. I leaped. But I had miscalculated my abnormal heaviness. I hit the rocks a few feet short of him, stumbled, almost went down. As my arms flailed I saw him over me, his pointed face demoniac with lustful triumph, his knife stabbing at my chest.

There was a whirring of wings, and a glistening body went past my head. Meeta. The ten inches of her elfin form flapped and struck Jahnt in the face. He hit wildly at her with his left hand, went off balance, with his knife-thrust going wild; and collided against me so that I was able to fling my arms around him. Then my left hand caught his wrist, twisted and the knife fell away. We went down, locked together, rolling. And suddenly I felt the knife hit my hand. Meeta with swift agility had retrieved it and brought it to me. The lithe Jahnt, far stronger than he looked, was momentarily on top of me. I seized the knife, stabbed upward into his chest; and with a choked cry he went limp, fell forward on me.

I scrambled to my feet. Jahnt wasn't quite dead, but obviously dying. Jim and I bent over him.

"You got away with the weapons?" Jim muttered. "Or are they still around here?"

"Curtmann has them. My little Midge flew to him, and came back with some of Curtmann's men. They left just a little while ago. I—showed them how to use the weapons. You will—be defeated by Curtmann. You damned—"

Again little Meeta suddenly called us. "Here! Here is Venta!"

She was lying, bound and gagged, but unharmed in the recess of some crags nearby. Jim and I rushed to her.

The three spacesuits were with her. Jim had gone back to the dying Jahnt and he called me. Blood was gushing now from Jahnt's mouth; he was gasping, but still he was trying ironically to smile.

"I—did not tell Curtmann's men that I had Venta. Why should I be in the battle? I just thought I would stay here with Venta, and if Curtmann won, then I would join him."

"Has he started from Shan?" Jim demanded.

"Oh—yes. He and his men must be half way to the Forest City by now. I 

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