"I've got to get ashore at once!" Barry panted.
Trapped between the electric barrier and the monsters prowling the slough, the Venusians would be doomed. With their leader dead, and ravening death at their heels, they would have forgotten all about attacking the colony, Barry hoped.
X
Once more they reached the spot where the tree lay at the water's edge.
"Wait here, darling," Barry said hurriedly, and climbed out.
He lay on the tree trunk a moment, coughing the water from his lungs. When he glanced up Robson Hind was standing there. Under his arms was a submachine gun.
"You damned degenerate fish-man!" he said.
Barry could only stare helplessly as Hind's trigger finger tightened. The man looked mad.
A shot barked from the swamp and at the same instant a slender arm from the water caught Hind's ankle and jerked. The submachine gun roared an unaimed burst as he toppled backwards. His head thwacked dully against the wood, and then there was a splash as he sank.