As he jumped backward to escape being hit by the dying thing, Anderson collided with Helen Green who had been standing right behind him.
He helped her to her feet and then said angrily, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you stand back where you belong, with the other girls?"
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I wanted to find out how that new gun of yours works, so I stood right behind you and watched you operate it."
A second later, when Captain Verger rushed into the Goddard's control compartment, he was nearly startled out of his wits. Barring his way was an enormous slug-man, who had obviously been left behind to guard the space-ship.
With a beastly snarl which sent cold shivers racing along the Earthman's spine, the creature seized him in its slimy arms and lifted his two hundred pound body as easily as if he had been a baby. Verger had barely time enough to shout a warning, "Look out, Al!" to LeDoux, when the monster whirled him about and crashed his head against the metal floor of the space-ship.
Drawing his ray-gun, LeDoux fired point-blank at the slug-man. The powerful blast, which would have instantly disintegrated the body of a human being or other mammal, seemed to have absolutely no effect on the boneless body of the Callistonian. One of its weird, three-fingered hands shot out, grabbed the weapon and wrenched it out of LeDoux's grasp. Then it turned the ray-gun on the Earthman.
The mechanism, of course, was unfamiliar to the monstrosity, and this undoubtedly saved the space-pilot's life. After fumbling for a second or two in an unsuccessful attempt to operate the weapon, the creature dropped it with a grunt of disgust and tackled LeDoux with its powerful, sinuous arms.
Attracted by the noise, Helen Green and two of the other girls rushed to the door of the control room. One of them uttered a low moan and fainted dead away. The second girl ran screaming out of the space-ship. Helen was the only one who kept her head. Turning to Professor Anderson, who was right behind her, she snatched the Supersonic Projector out of his hand, thrust its muzzle into the slug-man's side and squeezed the trigger.
Like a deflated balloon, the huge body collapsed, flopping to the floor in a shapeless mass. Into it plumped LeDoux, his fall cushioned as if he had dropped into a quivering heap of jelly.
Although he was trembling like an ash-tree in an earthquake, LeDoux, thanks to his long experience in facing emergencies, instantly took command of the situation.