But the plane's atom-blast must have begun to find the range, because soon the Brain propelled itself toward the shelter of one of the buildings. It was angry, but it was intelligent. It recognized the danger of that atom-blast. The transparent dome encasing the Brain was of very tough material, but it would have soon crumbled under a few direct and powerful blasts.
It was not until the Brain had withdrawn to safety that the tension eased, and the men dared to leap across the square again, strewn with the ghastly remains of numberless Proktols. This time they were not apprehended. The mysterious rocket-plane was speeding away toward the desert, but the destruction had been so terrible that the remaining Proktols didn't care or dare to emerge.
Devries spied one of the atom-blasts that he or Ross had dropped. He snatched it up, stopped and looked back speculatively, weighing the weapon in his hand.
Janus pulled at him. "Come on, you don't know when you're lucky!"
"Yes, but I'd like to take at least one good blast at that Brain after the way it slapped and battered us around!" Devries stumbled along after them, unwillingly.
"Have you got the Wasp?" Janus finally managed to ask Ross.
"I didn't get here through the fourth dimension! It's out on the desert there, just about a mile from here. I had a close call when they turned that flame on the Wasp. I got to a space-suit just in time. Kept their ship in our visipanel long enough to see they were heading back for Neptune. Took me hours to repair the Wasp, and hours more to find you." Ross very prudently didn't ask about Blake or Ketrik, and Janus was glad of that.
They reached the Wasp, and lost little time in blasting out into space.
"What about that fleet of space-ships we saw down there?" Devries asked. "Can't we go down and blast them off the map?"