Page:Stirring Science Stories, March 1942.djvu/19



as ants to kill. Many, many of them. Must hide in cave inside big boat. Hurry."

"Good fellow," said Rolf clapping the little man's narrow back so hard that Jek swallowed twice and sat down abruptly.

"That settles it—we take off at once," Rolf told the whitefaced girl at his side. "Last time you escaped their notice because they believed that all of you were wiped out. This time they will hunt us down one by one unless we leave the canyons forever."

Janet nodded her head mutely.

"Hurry, Rof," Jek cried out tugging at the leg of the man. "They are near. Run."

"I see them," Janet whispered tensely. Rolf spun half-about.

A moving mass of black dots, little men mounted on miniature shaggy horses, was descending a flinty ridge of stone a scant two hundred yards further up the canyon. Rolf sent six bullets booming up at them and for a moment they reined in, confusion milling them into a whirlpool of bobbing heads and legs. Then he grasped the girl's hand; swung Jek up to his shoulder perch, and raced down the rocky path to the shelter of the cabins.

An instant later the pygmy horsemen charged down upon their heels. Swiftly the gap narrowed between the two groups but Rolf and the girl reached the cabins a good fifty strides ahead of their prisoners.

Jean welcomed them with a taut grin but the little repeating rifle in her slim tanned fingers kept snapping. And with every spaced shot a tiny rider rolled from his mount.

Rolf jerked down several shotguns and rifles from their pegs