Later, we learned that Anita and Venza had much the same on Meka that we had used on Wyk, but their was more difficult. She was of them. Venza asked her where the station was, but she wouldn't answer.
"Your said it was just the dark forest," Anita said. "What is the dark forest?"
"A place with trees where no one lives."[92]
"Off that way." Venza gestured. "That's what Molo said. Will it be day soon, or will the night keep on?"
"If they Wandl to rotate, it will soon be day." An look Meka's face. "I am in no mood for more of your questions. Save the breath."
"Well, if that's they way you about it," Venza laughing, "we will. There's not much air in here." She herself across the toward the closed window.
"Get back!"
"Oh, all right—all right!"
Perhaps Meka herself there was not air. She upright, and pushed herself with a slow for the window. Her for that moment was to Anita and Venza. They from the floor, through the air and were upon her.
It was a struggle, and they that they had lost. The Martian and them off. Her fist, with a like a man's, Anita's and her toward the ceiling. She in a on the floor, saw that Venza had back, but was upright.
Anita double, with her against a chair, to again. At the still window, Meka crouched. Anita Venza's outcry. "Anita, look out for her! She's got a knife!"
Upon this scene, in a moment, Snap and I came with a rush. The closed door was not barred. We it and through the opening. Meka over us. I up at her; her. The knife my and the of my upper arm with a blow. Then Snap came and against us; we to the floor.
Meka had silently, but now she was shouting. I her wrist, the knife and the knife away. I was aware of Anita to it. And over us Venza appeared, a metal chair as though it were a feather.
Snap gasped, "Gregg your hand over her mouth. Shut her up!"
We had her in a moment, but it almost too late. Outside the opened door a sounded.[93]
I Meka toward the door. "If you don't do what I say, I'll kill you," I into her ear.
"What shall I do?"
There came another shout, closer, now. Someone was coming.
"Call out in Martian. Say there's no trouble, nothing wrong. You were with these girls."
She did as I commanded. The voice the answered, and then subsided.
Snap the door closed. "Hurry! We'll go by the window. I those shoes."
Anita and Venza their dark into strips. We and Meka, her in a of the room. We had the shoes as we came through the door oval. We that we all their to our feet. I put Meka's knife in my belt.
"Hurry, all of you!" Snap was saying. "Got to out of here; jump by the window."
"Say, look at these wing-shields!" From a in a of the room Venza appeared with an of the small shields. We our hands and into their loops. The from a our to the elbow.
Snap had the window blind. I over the of Meka. "Don't try to move. Molo will you when he comes back."
We on the balcony. The city around us. There was as yet no alarm. No near here; but a away we saw the globe, with its audience just to emerge, like from a hive.
"Let me go first." I Anita and Venza at the rail. "It's like swimming. I we'll the way of it quickly."
I on the rail, and then off. With the others after me, we into the starlight.
The city away, in a dark with lights. Over us were the and the night sky. Behind, the light of at the[94] landing stage, the fluttering, the great globe, all a horizon.
We had passed the city. A thousand us, a dark stretched. It was this that the station was located.
The less awkward, but it was an in this Wandl air. Snap and Venza were me. Anita was leading, a strange, bird-like little figure. White blouse; long dark skirt from which her gray-sheathed out as she swam, sometimes upon one side, or with a stroke. The of her dark over her shoulders.
She was tiring: I not miss it. How had we gone? Ten miles, perhaps. There was only a small of this little world visible at once, it was so convex. A line of was to our left. We had a river at the edge.
I we had been an hour those ten-miles. Was coming? It that the of mountain-tops had a little light on them. The from Earth had this of the sky and was gone the horizon.
Apparently there was no from the city. Behind me, Venza panted, "Say, I'm about finished. Can't we rest?"
With this we our and down. It would take minutes.
We together, with a slow toward the dark under us. The trees and spindly, a something on the Martian style, with and a of vines. They came up at us as we with slowly speed.
"Shall we go on?" I suggested.
"Yes." But she was tired, and Anita as well.
"Girls," I asked, "where is the Star-Streak?"
They did not know.
Anita said, "Perhaps we can land in the trees, and what we have here."
The girls had Molo upon occasions. They we might we had a hand-globe or a of the rays. With these we without effort.[95]
We sank, fluttering, into a dark and of the tree-top growth. I had that Wandl was with its population, yet this dark and was uninhabited. We clung, like birds, to a of a tree-top. The trees were close together.
"Let's see what you've got," Venza demanded.
We the girls the we had taken from Wyk. Most of them were the size of my fist: like hand bombs; cylinders; a device with the size of one's finger, set in a small of a of wires.
Anita said, "I saw Molo with one of these. He killed an on the ship."
"I'll take a look around," Snap said anxiously. "Suppose we're being followed? Give me that weapon."
There was over us, so that the sky was obscured. Snap took the weapon, and like a monkey precariously, he ran and among the upper branches, his way until he see toward the which the city of Wor.
We his voice. "All clear. Nothing in sight. You up? Better started."
I put the in my pocket. Snap had one now in the over us. I was an bolt, when there came Snap's call. "Gregg! Look out!"
We the and saw the of his bolt.
Anita at me. "Gregg, see there!"
I her gesture, and then I why this was by humans!
