After only a brief hesitation the alien returned to the Zade he had wounded a few minutes before. The man had ceased to move. Evidently he was dead.
The alien tossed the dead sentinel across his shoulders and carried him to the spot beneath the metal cover. Here he reached up and tapped sharply. The cover moved back cautiously, and the alien rammed the corpse upward, head foremost.
The body struck the cover and knocked it aside. The alien shoved it a bit higher, and it quivered as the swords above pierced it.
He dropped the dead carcass and sprinted forward. He had bought all the time he could, and there was nothing for him to do now except try to reach the end of the tunnel before the gas overcame him. His head was held high as he ran—he had deduced that they had to use a heavier-than-air gas. He did not have far to go.
He reached the end of the tunnel and stumbled onto a conduit leading from the main air compressor. For a short time he lay sprawled across the metal duct, too exhausted to move. Finally he raised his head and looked wearily about him. He spied a vent opening on a level with his head, and with a determined effort he removed the screen and climbed through. Utter fatigue showed in line of his body.
Outside he stood for several minutes, drawing clean air deep into his lungs. There were no sentries here. They had not expected him to get this far. But they would come, soon after they failed to flush him from the tunnel.
The alien looked about, then headed unerringly toward the sand banked against the wall of the pumping station. He dug until he had made a long hollow then let his weary body fall into the shallow place and began piling sand over his legs. When he had covered all of himself except one arm, he burrowed it down until he was completely hidden from sight.
"How can such a man be stopped?" Srtes asked. His face was drawn and gray, as though he had suffered some great defeat.
The alien must have dropped off to sleep for he stayed in the sand for several hours, and did not emerge until shortly before day-light. Evidently he had first made an opening through which to observe, for there were no guards about when he stood up and shook the sand from his body.