ugh crouched behind the table. From around its edge he could see out the doorway and across the glade. I was aware of a weapon in his hand.
"Do not look around again," he repeated. "The other cage is coming; it's almost here."
I held Mary, and we gazed out. We were pressed against the bars, and sunlight was on our heads and shoulders. I realized that we could be plainly seen from across the glade. We were lures—decoys to trap Harl.
How long an interval went by I cannot judge. The scene was very silent, the blackened forest lying sullen in the noonday sunlight. Against the tree, five hundred feet or so from us, the dark towering metal figure of the Robot stood motionless.
Would the other cage come? I tried to guess in what part of this open glade it would appear.
At a movement behind me I turned slightly. At once the voice of Tugh hissed:
"Do not do that! I warn you!"
His shrouded figure was still hunched behind the table. He was peering toward the open door. I saw in his hand a small, barrel-like weapon, with a wire dangling from it. The wire lay like a snake across the floor and terminated in a small metal cylinder in the room corner.
"Turn front," he ordered vehemently. "One more backward look and—Careful! Here he comes!"