But the Brain must have felt the menace. There came a great surge of anger, and the atom-blast was suddenly torn from Devries' hand, as was the one Ross held. Then the men were jerked to their feet by the same invisible force which had held them prone upon the pavement. The Brain, still pulsing angrily, held them there until dozens of the official Proktols came and grasped them; not until then did it withdraw its powerful thought-force.
Janus and Devries, with Ross accompanying them this time, were hurried back toward that building from which they had just escaped at such pains. Now Devries saw the huge, green glowing Neptune rising swiftly in the heavens, and realized that day was here again. And already the hordes of savage Proktols were coming again into the square, to await their Ritual, which would undoubtedly continue so long as there were victims.
"Too bad you had to come here, Ross," Devries said dully. He was utterly without hope now. They had come very close to escape, and they would have made it, had it not been for that diabolical Brain.
Devries was just wondering how he could die, but not the way Ketrik had, when they heard a great cry go up from the gathered throng behind them. And it was a cry of fear, or awe. Despite the wiry arms that held them, the men twisted around and looked back.
Coming toward them, low over the city, was a rocket-plane. And it was undeniably an Earth type of plane! The Proktols holding the three men jabbered excitedly in their own staccato language; then, still holding the men, they hurried to the shelter of the nearest building and crouched there. It sounded very much as if they had seen this rocket-plane before, and feared it!
The Proktols crowding in the square were trying to flee too; but before they could all disperse, the plane was over them, letting loose a wide swath of death. From the extent of it, the Earthmen judged that rocket-plane must carry a portable atom-blast nearly as large as the Patrol ships carried! It swept over the square once, veered sharply and came back. This time the atom-blast swept very close to the line of buildings where the men crouched. Their captors broke and raced for shelter.
But the Earthmen were not yet free. As they crouched there, watching their unknown benefactor, they felt the fierce surge of power from the Brain again. It alone did not flee. It remained there, on its platform, in the middle of the now deserted square. And if it was angry before, it was raging now, with a crimson, crackling radiance.
For it was the Brain which was the object of the rocket-plane's attack. A third, fourth, and yet a fifth time the plane came sweeping back over the square. And each time it did so, the Earthmen could feel part of the crushing thought-force which the Brain hurled upward at it. Invisible weapon against invisible weapon. Atom-blast versus the Brain's super mental-force!
And the Brain fought tenaciously. Such was its power that the rocket-plane was caught in its grip once, veered crazily and was almost buffeted down until an extra burst of the rockets sent it zooming away. The watching Earthmen felt that power too, and were sent spinning, bruised and battered, against the building where they crouched.