"One!" he gloated.
Another was scampering furiously twenty feet ahead. He drove down on it, exulted when he heard the treads crush the hard chitinous shell.
"Two!"
"Three!"
The revolting beasts were fleet, but the tractor was swifter. One after another, he ran them down, his lips twisting in a fierce grin each time he heard one squash beneath his treads.
At last, two miles from camp, he stopped. He had destroyed the last 'pede trying to escape to the ocean. But had he killed the brains that had directed this gigantic assault on the mine?
He pivoted and started back to the compound. The 'pedes were still ambling around, following their single purposes. He could never have got through if the ultra-short wave hadn't actually blanketed the brains' commands. But were the animals merely disorganized only as long as the broadcast continued, or had their rulers really been killed?
Mac reached the mine. Limpy opened a gate in the concrete wall, and he drove through. A moment later, he was in the lookout wall, standing beside his two partners, gazing out the window.
"Did you get them?" Limpy asked breathlessly.