Part 2

And the pale gray light outside strengthened....

* * * * *

Higher and higher they climbed the mountain slope. The cave where they had rested now lay hundreds of feet below. The fog thinned and the glow of the swollen sun was a brighter blur above them. They could see for more than a hundred feet on either hand and above.

"Spacer should find us easier up here," Onin said. "If we can only find a plateau or wide bench where they can land. And the two rocket flares I brought along should help."

"We might even find an abandoned trading station," Jay told him. "Before the Frogs became hostile several hundred of them were built in the uplands. A few of them are still in operation, or were at the period I seem to recall."

"I hope," said Onin fervently, "we'll find a fort or spaceport."

"Could be, but we haven't stumbled across any discarded plastin cartons," was Jay's dry rejoinder. "They're stacked buckle-high around most settlements on Venus."

The little man, Desix Owun, came breathlessly up from the rear of the straggling party.

"I saw Frogs on our trail," his high voice shrilled, "hundreds of 'em. Gimme a stitcher."

Jay chuckled at Onin's raised eyebrows.

"Means an expoder," he explained. He turned to the ex-animat. "Ina has an extra gun, the one Thela had. Tell her I said to give it to you."

Desix Owun's shifty eyes gleamed delightedly. He hurried down to where the two women toiled upward.

"I'm going back with the grenades, Jay," the lanky man said. He took a swipe at his huge nose. "Keep climbing while I cover the rear."

"I'd rather go back," objected Jay.

"Some of them may have gone ahead of us," said Onin grimly, "and they'll be pushing rocks and spears down at you. We're trapped here on the slope."

Jay could see the logic of the older man's words. He climbed upward along the broken trail of ledges and watercourses more swiftly.

And emerged suddenly, between two towering walls of shattered pink and black stone, on the edge of a grassy plateau-like expanse--the flattened top of the mountain they were ascending! He turned to call down to the others, and a spear grazed his shoulder.

From below three explosions, raggedly spaced, told of the effectiveness of the crude grenades. Then he turned to face the unknown enemies of the plateau.

They were butrads like those on the trail below, unlovely web-footed batrachians with the spraddled two-legged bodies of uncouth humanoids. Twelve of them there were, all armed with spears, clubs and knives of bone.

He fired carefully, husbanding his dwindling store of explosive needles. And they went down, one after another, until only one croaking giant remained on his feet.

It was then that the trimmer key jammed.

He worked with fog-wet fingers, not aided in the least by the sweat that suddenly began to drip down his arm and fingers, to clear the key. It was ticklish work for the exposed speck of biaton might explode at too rough contact.

The Frog raced closer, his ghastly purple-rimmed eyes and mouth strained, and his croaking warcry booming triumphantly.

There was an explosion of rockets overhead, growing more audible with every second; the butrad, hearing the sound, slowed his pace momentarily. That instant gave Jay time to holster his little expoder and snatch up one of the clumsy spears at his feet.

He threw the weapon, scooped up another, and flung it. Both spears found sleek gray flesh, one in the stomach and the other in the batrachian's neckless throat. The giant Frog staggered and lurched forward uncertainly. Jay's fist swung up, smashing into the broad noseless face, and the native went down.

One by one the three animats and the two women climbed to where he stood. He saw Onin hurl a last grenade downward and then climb upward again. The bony-framed man's breathing was ragged as he reached the level and blood was dripping off his limp left hand from a spear wound in his shoulder.

Onin sank down on the rocky level ground beyond the riven rocks. He groped in his pouch with his good hand.

"The rocket flares," he murmured huskily.

The distant thunder of jets had swelled louder. There were several ships, Jay decided, the cadence of their rockets differed. In a matter of seconds they would be almost directly overhead.

He ran out into the undulating grassy flat, knelt, and twisted off the flare's cap. He adjusted the height for six thousand feet and depressed the firing stud. The rocket flare sped skyward, growling unevenly as its speed built up.

A moment later a mushrooming blossom of orange light rode above them.

Rocket jets hammered, after a long instant of suspense, out a one-three-two burst of fire. The signal had been seen. Jay shouted. He sent the other flare blasting heavenward to guide the ships.

From the rocks at the rim a burst of expoder fire sounded.

* * * * *

Ina Haan stood over the three animats, two of them still helmeted. Jay and Onin had not yet found time to free the men from their encumbering explosive-laden control cases. Their bodies were torn open by expoder needles.

"What happened?" he demanded as he raced closer.

"They attacked me," Ina said calmly, "and I was forced to kill them."

"She lies!" Thela cried out. "She shot them down. So they couldn't talk. She's going to blackmail Father--use the money to make her famous."

Jay read the truth in the hard smile the dancer flashed him. She tipped up a defiant chin. And the little expoder in her hand swung to cover Thela and himself. She planned to blackmail Animats Incorporated, once clear of Venus, and their lives meant little to her.

She nodded. "Better throw in with me, Jay. We can both be rich--on Animats credits. After what they did to you it's only right."

"And keep my mouth shut about this traffic in hunted men?" Jay exploded. He shook his head. "I'll rot in prison first."

"You'll not have the chance, Jay." For a brief moment Ina's eyes were soft and pleading. "We could have plenty fun together on all that stardust...."

"Even if she kills you," Thela broke in, "I'll talk. I'd rather see Father in prison than...."

"You're both fools," said Ina Haan wearily, and the expoder swung up. Her face was twisted now into something not quite human.

Her finger moved to depress the firing stud. There was an explosion on the rocks directly behind her and she spun about toward its source. It was Onin Tufor's weapon that had fired the needle. The dying animat had aroused from his stupor long enough to loose but one ill-aimed shot. And that shot had missed.

The dancer's explosive needles ripped the lanky man's torso into shreds.

But that split second of death gave Jay the opportunity he needed. He sprang at Ina, knocked her expoder spinning, and the edge of his palm smacked hard along the line of her neck. She dropped, unmoving, and Jay knotted her wrists together with a pack strap.

Thela came to him, and not far away the stratocars, surface ships equipped with radar and scanning scopes for work inside the Venusian cloud envelope, were grounding. In a few moments they would be bound for civilization again.

"I meant it, Jay," said Thela softly, her breathing shallow and unsteady. "No matter what comes--I'm blasting along with you."

With his arm around her waist the chunky man who had been an animat awaited the coming of the rescue party.