After a moment the alien emerged. A portion of his cloak was wrapped around one hand, his sword in the other. We understood then what had happened. He had grasped the sentinel's sword in his padded hand and jerked him forward, at the same time thrusting out with his own weapon. The sentinel had been wounded critically.
However, the alien himself had not escaped unscathed. As he unbuttoned his jacket we could see a large spot of blood on the lighter surface of his blouse. He took a white cloth from a rear pocket of his trousers and pressed it between his jacket and the wound. When he went on this time he was very weary, obviously dredging up the last dregs of his strength.
In the short pause from action on the screen I looked around me. I was the only one in the room still sitting. The others had been unable to keep their seats during the excitement of watching the flight of the fighting alien. Some stood tensely or leaned against the walls, others paced restlessly, and one knelt on his hassock.
I returned my attention to the outside half of the screen. The captain of the sentinels was letting gas into the tunnel!
I felt a pang of regret. This was the beginning of the end. I wondered then if the alien did not have some inkling by this time that there was more to this than a mere seeking of revenge by Ctvar's kinsmen.
He went on only a few strides farther before he detected the gas. Even then his ingenuity did not desert him. As he stood with his nostrils spread a noise above him caused him to look up. He spied a metal covered opening into the tunnel directly over his head. A dozen sentinels, I saw with a side glance, were grouped around it.