shields. I shot a glance behind. They were in motion, advancing
slowly, hesitatingly as yet--but I knew that soon
that hesitation would pass; that they would sweep down
upon us, engulf us.

"To the crevice," I shouted to Drake. He paid no heed
to me, nor did Ruth--their gaze fastened upon the swathed
woman.

Ventnor's hand shot out, gripped my shoulder, halted me.
She had thrown up her head. The cloudy METALLIC hair
billowed as though wind had blown it.

From the lifted throat came a low, a vibrant cry; harmonious,
weirdly disquieting, golden and sweet--and laden
with the eery, minor wailings of the blue valley's night,
the dragoned chamber.

Before the cry had ceased there poured with incredible
swiftness out of the crevice score upon score of
the metal things. The fissures vomited them!

Globes and cubes and pyramids--not small like those
of the ruins, but shapes all of four feet high, dully lustrous,
and deep within that luster the myriads of tiny points of
light like unwinking, staring eyes.

They swirled, eddied and formed a barricade between
us and the armored men.