"Oh, John—"
"Don't talk, Tara—keep going—"
It seemed that we could hear muffled shouts far behind us. But presently we outdistanced them, and then at last, after an eternity, we came safely out onto the upper surface.
It was night; glittering starlight on this doomed little world, heading for the heat of our giant sun.
And there, quite near us, was the dark little globe of the Planeteer, with the starlight glittering on its glassite dome-top.
"Wait, Tara—just a moment—" Unexpectedly, here on the sloshing half-melted surface, I came upon the pickaxe, shovel and big canvas bags, which Carruthers had dropped here when we were captured. The sword-slash of gray Xalite ore was visible, a gleaming inlay in the cliff-face nearby. I ran there. It chipped out readily under the axe and then I shoveled it up, stuffed a hundred pounds or so of it into a bag and staggered away.
The Planeteer. Never was anything so welcome as that lower little door-oval. I tossed the bag into it. Barely in time. From over by the cliff, the first of the pursuing Zurians were pouring out.
"Hurry! Get inside, Tara—I'll close the door—"
Mutely she obeyed. The oncoming Zurians were led by a huge figure. Zogg. Grimly I leveled my gun, sizzled a bolt which struck him full, crumpled him. It checked the others for a moment as I slammed the Planeteer's door and with Tara rushed up to its upper control turret. The mechanisms hummed as they went into operation.
And then slowly, silently, we lifted. The Zurians were in a horde down there around the Planeteer, milling and scrambling. A few of them dropped off as we rose, up into the starlight with the strange little world sliding away beneath us.