He broke into a stumbling run forward, the girl completely forgotten. At the edge of the grove he paused only a moment to make sure the shielding light of the helmet was properly adjusted. Then he swung his blade down upon one of the white stumps. It split easily and he drew forth a perfect rhizoid, larger than any they had found so far. For a moment he held it shakily in his hand. Then he slipped it into the leather pouch he carried on his belt.
In little more than an hour Mallard had filled the pouch he carried. He was working like a madman, now, the sweat pouring from him in torrents, and he was numb with fatigue but the fever in his brain swept away all thoughts of stopping.
He wanted more of these gleaming stones. He wanted to fill his pockets with them, carry them away in his cupped hands. He was still moving forward on tottering feet when he heard Tiny scream. He whirled about savagely, his hand darting to the small blaster at his belt.
A tangled horde of Mercurian warriors was pouring out of the swamp into the clearing. Their bestial faces were twisted with rage and their wooden spears raised menacingly. Even as Mallard turned and sprinted back, those wooden spears were flying past his head. He ducked down behind a log, the native girl crouched, whimpering like a puppy, beside him.
Mallard put the helmet and the bag of rhizoids down beside him and began picking off the scaly-hided warriors, one by one. He fired carefully, anxious to conserve the remaining charges in his small hand blaster. In his mind was a new dread.
He knew that, long ago, Bill Olger and the Martian would have returned to the Space Lark and found him gone. They would immediately set out looking for him and the sound of this fight would draw them to him. They must not find him with his pouch full of rhizoids! Never would he share those stones with any one else, that much he knew.
Suddenly he saw something that caused him to open his eyes in stark disbelief. One of the warriors in that milling throng was wearing another helmet, an exact duplicate of the one lying beside him. And he was carrying a fragment from one of those deadly fungus stumps in his hands! Holding it ready to hurl the moment he was close.
Mallard started to put on his own helmet, then realized that in his prone position it would not shield him. He let it lie and started firing more rapidly, trying to reach the wearer of that helmet. He ducked aside as one of the spears barely missed him and heard a moan of anguish from the girl beside him. One of the spears had gone into her side and blood was pouring from the wound.
From out in the swamp, there was the sound of signal shots, followed by loud shouts. It was Olger and D'ulio and they were not far away. Mallard began firing at top speed, now, and the Mercurians fell like tenpins. The moaning girl beside him he ignored. And then the whole action exploded into nightmare.
The Mercurian with the helmet stepped forward and called out a peremptory command to the girl. And she answered! Snatching up the pouch of rhizoids, she jumped clear of the log and started hobbling painfully toward her own people. At the same moment, Mallard saw big Olger and D'ulio leap out into the clearing, guns drawn.