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point where it connected with the ledge upon which Cheerly and his men were defending themselves.
Cheerly turned, appalled, as the Planeteers and their two glowing guides appeared. The Uranian,
unrecognizable in his shapeless spacesuit and coated helmet, made himself known by the cry that vibrated
from him as he saw them.
"Have you come from the ship to help? Cheerly cried, not recognizing the Planeteers. How did you get
here with those two glowing devils?"
"We came after you, Cheerly, Thorn cried throbbingly. The Uranian shrank back as he heard Thorn's
voice.
"The Planeteers! he exclaimed wildly.
Lana stumbled forward, unrecognizable in her ray-proofed suit, but her silver voice wildly glad from
inside it.
"John! John Thorn! she cried. I knew you would follow somehow."
Thorn, gripping her tightly for a moment, saw beyond her the little asterium sledge, and the mass upon it
which was wrapped in the sheets of asterium Cheerly had prepared and brought. That mass was no more
than four feet in diameter each way, and a corner of it that protruded through the hastily wrapped sheets
showed that it was a huge chunk of dense matter blazing with intolerable white brilliance.
There was the radite, at last! The isotope that was the rarest element in existence, the block of blazing
matter that contained locked within it incalculable power that might sway the future of the whole system!
"I knew you would escape from Saturn and come after us, Lana was sobbing wildly. But I feared "
"John, here they come! Gunner Welk yelled wildly.
The radioactive mob below were scrambling up to the attack again. And this time, as though enraged by
the appearance of the newcomers with two of their own glowing kind, the maddened mob of radiant men
came with ferocious determination.
There was no time for Thorn to deal Cheerly the fate he deserved, no time for anything. The first of the
glowing men was already scrambling onto the ledge!
Gunner fired his atom-pistol at them viciously. But the flare of blinding energy did not harm the glowing
men. The emanations from their radioactive bodies simply repelled that energy.
"Use rocks! Thorn yelled, stooping and picking up a chunk of shimmering stone and hurling it.
It knocked one of the glowing men off the ledge. But others were scrambling onto it. It became a wild
battle to hold the ledge against them.
Clymer Nison and Chan Gray, the glowing Martian, fought by the side of the Planeteers and Cheerly's
men. They seized glowing attackers and hurled them down. But still others gained the ledge, and it
became a crazy hand-to-hand melee.
Thorn, struggling in the insane grip of one of the glowing men, saw others tear the helmet off one of
Cheerly's followers. As the terrific radiation omnipresent on this planet struck the luckless Saturnian's
unprotected face, he screamed like a hurt animal. And almost instantly, his face and body began to glow
with that ghastly blue emanation.
The Planeteers fought with their metal-clad fists. Gunner Welk's great arms swept a clear circle around
him, the big Mercurian roaring. Sual Av pulled off a glowing attacker who had leaped on Thorn's back
and was trying to wrench away his helmet.
For minutes the crazy struggle went on. A fight with maddened lost souls on a planet of the damned! But
with Nison and the Martian helping, the Planeteers forced, the radiant men back off the ledge. They
gathered below, howling with fury.
Thorn turned quickly. Lana was stumbling to her feet from the back of the ledge.
"John, Cheerly's gone! she cried. While you were fighting, he and his remaining man slipped away along
the ledge with the sledge of radite! They struck me down "
Thorn whirled, wild with rage and apprehension. The cunning Uranian, seizing the opportunity when the
Planeteers were engaged in the wild melee, had with his remaining follower stolen away with the radite.
They could, be seen now in the distance, hurrying along the shelf by which the Planeteers had come to
the ledge.
"After them! Thorn cried.
They rushed back along the shelf, Nison and Chan Gray following joining in pursuit of the two fugitives.
Rapidly they gained on the two fugitives who were encumbered with the sledge.
They saw Cheerly and his follower round a narrow place in the shelf ahead. As they rushed after them,
atomic shells burst ahead and a mass of the shimmering cliff was dislodged by the flare of energy and fell
in an avalanche across the shelf. It blocked the narrow way completely, halting the Planeteers.
"Cheerly used their pistols to cause that rock-fall! Sual Av cried furiously.
"Down to the floor of the chasm! We'll follow that way and beat them back to the ship! Thorn shouted.
"We can't! the Venusian cried. Look, that mob has followed us!"
The maddened crowd of radioactive men below, seeing the Planeteers party moving away along the
narrow ledge, had followed along the floor of the chasm. They were gathered now below, preparing to
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