_Triumph!_
"Is he conscious? We'd better take him back, get his helmet off."
"It's over. We can get back now. Venza, dear, we've won--it's over."
"He hears us!"
"Gregg!"
"He hears us--he's all right!"
I opened my eyes. I lay on the rocks. Over my helmet other helmets
were peering, and faint, familiar voices mingled with the roaring in
my ears.
"--back to the camp and get his helmet off."
"Are his motors smooth? Keep them right, Snap--he must have good air."
I seemed unhurt. But Anita....
She was here. "Gregg, dear one!"
Anita safe! All four of us here on the Earthlit rocks, close outside
the brigand ship.
"Anita!"
She held me, lifted me. I was uninjured. I could stand; I staggered up
and stood swaying. The brigand ship, a hundred feet away, loomed dark
and silent, a lifeless bulk, already empty of air, drained in that mad
blast outward. Like the wreck of the _Planetara_--a dead, pulseless
hulk already.
We four stood together, triumphant. The battle was over. The brigands
were worsted, almost the last man of them dead or dying. No more than
ten or fifteen had been available for that final assault upon the camp
buildings. Miko's last strategy. I think perhaps he had intended, with
his few remaining men, to take the ship and make away, deserting his
fellows.
All on the ship, caught unhelmeted by the explosion, were dead long
since.
I stood listening to Snap's triumphant account. It had not been
difficult for the flying platforms to hunt down the attacking brigands
on the open rocks. We had only lost one more platform.
Human hearts beat sometimes with very selfish emotions. It was a
triumphant ending for us, and we hardly gave a thought that half of
Grantline's little group had perished.
We huddled on Snap's platform. It rose, lurching drunkenly, barely
carrying us.
And as we headed for the Grantline buildings, where still the rift in
the wall had not quite broken, there came the final triumph. Miko had
been aware of it, and knew he had lost. Grantline's search-light
leaped upward, swept the sky, caught its sought-for object--a huge
silver cylinder, bathed brightly in the white search-beam glare.
The police-ship from Earth!