Stokely picked up his gun and got to his feet dazedly, shaking his head to clear it. Archer studied his face and saw there a vast, rising anger, but no longer the wild light of utter unreason. The man was in a dangerous mood and might readily kill again, but he had evidently been jolted back to a semblance of sanity.
Suddenly, Stokely's eyes widened and fear became dominant in his expression. He obviously had just realized the implication of the fact that his head-globe was broken. He licked his lips, and looked back and forth from Archer to Evans.
His mouth tightened with sudden purpose.
"Evans! Look out!" Archer shouted, but too late.
Stokely had lashed out with his gun and caught Evans sharply on the right wrist. As Evans' gun dropped from paralyzed fingers, Stokely easily shoved him away and scooped it up from the ground. He stepped back a few paces, keeping a watchful eye on Archer.
"Okay," he ordered Evans grimly, "take it off!"
Only then, evidently, did Evans' slow wits grasp the meaning of what had happened. His dark eyes stared with fright, but he loosened the clamps with trembling fingers, and set his head-globe carefully on the ground. Stokely, now in possession of all three guns, holstered the one in his left hand, removed his cracked head-globe with some difficulty, and even more awkwardly replaced it with Evans'.
Head-globes were interchangeable, though the individually proportioned suits were not. The reason that Stokely had called upon Evans, not Archer, to remove his globe was disturbingly obvious. Stokely wanted Evans in the same status as himself, for the time being—which should have been reassuring to Evans. To Archer it was quite the contrary, and he was not surprised when Stokely scowled at him a moment later and spoke in a voice that was too quiet:
"As for you, you're too smart for your own good. I don't think we need you around any longer." The gun in his right hand swung slowly.