If the weight of the sword were lighter here than on Earth, the arm that wielded it had been trained in very different warfare, and possessed a strength which made the combat so unequal that, had no other life hung on my blows, I should have been ashamed to strike.

As I paused for a moment under this feeling, I noted that, outside the space half cleared by slaughter and by terror, the bearers of the lightning gun were forming a sort of semicircle, embarrassed by the comrades driven back upon them, but drawing momentarily nearer, and seeking to enclose before firing the object of their aim.

They would have shattered my heart and head in another instant but that--springing on the projecting stone of which I have spoken, which raised her to my level--Eveena had flung her arms around me, and sheltered my person with her own.

This, and the confusion, disconcerted the aim of most of the assailants.

The roar and flash half stunned me for a moment;--then, as I caught her in my left arm, I became aware that it was but her lifeless form that I clasped to my breast.