They had a moment's leeway. The Drilgoes had driven the priests back into the hooks. With awful shrieks the fanatics were yielding up their lives, in the place of their selected victims.
But more Drilgoes were pouring up the stairs. A moment's leeway, and no more, before the savage band would impale the four upon their stone-pointed spears. There was not the slightest chance that they would be able to make their identity known.
"For God's sake hurry!" Jim yelled in Tode's ear.
The wheels were revolving, a stream of violet light, leaping out of the central tunnel, cast a lurid illumination upon the scene.
But it was too late. A score of Drilgoes, with leveled spears, were rushing on the four.
"Hold tight!" screeched Parrish. He thrust his arm into his breast, and pulled out a little lever. Jim recognized it and remembered. It was the instrument of universal death—the uranium release of untold forces of cataclysmic depredation.
"Take that!" screamed the old man, inserting the lever into the secret groove in the Atom Smasher and jerking it in the direction of the priests.
CHAPTER XI
Tode's Last Gamble
