The little figure paused. Its whirling disc shifted from
the horizontal plane on which it spun. It was as though it
cocked its head to look up at me--and again I had the
sense of innumerable eyes peering at me. It did not seem
menacing--its attitude was inquisitive, waiting; almost as
though it had asked for something and wondered why I did
not let it have it. The shock still held me rigid, although
a tingle in every nerve told me of returning force.

The disc tilted back to place, bent toward me again. I
heard a shout; heard a bullet strike the pigmy that now
clearly menaced; heard the bullet ricochet without the
slightest effect upon it. Dick leaped beside me, raised a
foot and kicked at the thing. There was a flash of light
and upon the instant he crashed down as though struck by
a giant hand, lay sprawling and inert upon the floor.

There was a scream from Ruth; there was softly sibilant
rustling all about her. I saw her leap the crevice, drop on
her knees beside Drake.

There was movement on the flagging where she stood.
A score or more of faintly shining, bluish shapes were
marching there--pyramids and cubes and spheres like those
forming the shape that stood before me. There was a curious
sharp tang of ozone in the air, a perceptible tightening
as of electrical tension.

They swept to the edge of the fissure, swam together, and
there, hanging half over the gap was a bridge, half spanning