"Very handy," Shorty commented. "Come on, Taro, let's go. Where is this Cavern of Machines?"
It was perhaps half an Earth-mile, low down in the maze of underground passages. Shorty clutched his knife; I held the Radak-gun as we followed Taro down the dim, descending crimson tunnel.
V
"There's one of the guards!" Shorty whispered. "See him?"
I pushed Shorty back. "No, two of them! The other one's sitting down. You and Taro keep behind me. I'll tackle them with the Radak-gun."
We could see the square grey figures of two Radaks down the little length of tunnel ahead of us. They were by an opening that seemed to lead sharply downward, with a glow of radiance streaming up. And now in the heavy underground silence we could hear the faint muffled thrum and whine of mechanisms.
My hand silently gripped Taro. All three of us crouched. "That's the entrance to the Cavern of Machines?" I whispered.
"Yes."
"Two guards. Are there liable to be more of them around?"