He was leading his fellows along the wall towards the ramp. The wall was wide enough to take three of us, and two warriors ranged themselves on either side of me.

I felt rather like Horatius holding the bridge at that moment, but the Blue Giants were unlike Lars Porsena's men in that none of them was crying 'back.' They all seemed to have the same obsession—to press forward at all costs.

Their huge bodies came towards us, lumbering, powerful. Their slitted eyes stared black hatred at us and I shuddered as, for an instant, I stared directly into one face. There was something less than human, something primeval about that gazesomething so primitive that I felt I had a vision of Hell!

Then they were upon us!

I remember only a fury of fighting. The rapid cut and thrust of the duel; the desperate sense of having to hang on, having to win, having to bring out every ounce of energy and skill if we were to drive them back to the ladder—and destroy it.

Yet it seemed at first as if the most we could do was hold the wall against these huge beast-men, looming above us with their great, corded muscles rolling under blue skins, their hate-filled, slitted eyes, their teeth-filled gashes of mouths, and their heavy weapons, the weight of which alone could sweep us from the wall to our doom!

I remember that my wrists, my arms, my back, my legs—my whole body—were aching. Then the aching seemed to stop and I felt only a strange numbness as we fought on. I remember the killing, also. We fought against their superior strength and numbers—and we killed. More than half-a-dozen Blue Giants fell beneath our blades.

We had more to fight for than just a city. We had an ideal, and this gave us a moral strength which the Argzoon lacked.

We began to advance, driving the giants back towards their ladder. This advantage gave us extra strength and we redoubled our attack, fighting shoulder to shoulder like old comrades—though I was a stranger from another planet, another time even.

And as the sun began to sink, staining the sky a deep purple shot with veins of scarlet and yellow, we had reached their ladder.

Holding the ladder we were able to stop the giants as they attempted to climb up.

While the others concentrated on stopping any more of the Argzoon gaining the wall, I chopped at the ladder as far down as I could, shortening it so that it no longer topped the wall. Spears clattered around me, but I worked on desperately.

At length my task was as finished as I could make it. I stood up, ignoring the missiles that flew about my body, took careful aim with the axe, aiming at the middle section of the ladder. Then I flung it.