The right side of Limpy's face drew down in disappointment. "You guys are suckers to stick around. I'm just a rubber cog."
"Rubber cog, huh?" Al yelped. "How do you think we're going to fight without a lookout man?"
"Don't talk like a sap, Limpy," added Mac with gruff gentleness. "We need you a lot more than you need us."
A slow, sad smile spread over Limpy's twisted features.
"Okay, if that's how you feel about it."
"That's how we feel about it," Swede answered.
They went down to their stations within the enclosure. In deadly silence, the camp waited for the first blow.
It came when the tension was almost unbearable. Through his infra-red goggles, MacAloon could see a vast, dark smear, advancing inexorably, like the ominous march of a black glacier. Before the ordered ranks came the expected stampede of animals.
As if they had studied the break-through tactics of the extinct Nazis, the 'pedes were driving huge beasts ahead of them, living tanks that were meant to smash down the mine's fortifications. Enormous meat-eaters were thundering along on vast legs, crushing smaller carnivores in their frenzied flight. Fleet, timid vegetarians raced beside their killers, but neither thought of anything except the hideously lethal creatures close behind them.