got the fourth and fifth legs this time. Relegar's body saggedconsiderably, but the spider, his entire body turning red with rage,spun around and charged again. This time the great mouth was open, thefangs ready, and the mandibles were extended. Grant left himself openuntil he could feel the spider's fetid breath in his face, then heflung out his shield.
The sharp fangs struck it. Relegar turned into a tornado of fury forperhaps a second, trying to shake the skin from his teeth. But it wastoo late. The skin came loose, but the radiation had paralyzed thespider. He sank feebly to the ground with the shield under him. Hiseyes glared with unutterable malignant hate, but that was all. Hismuscles were impotent.
Grant stood a few feet away, getting his breath, feeling thetrip-hammer in his temple slow down to normal. Then he aimed. Thesixth, seventh, and eighth legs burned off. He put the pistol in itsholster.
"I'm not going to try to kill you," he said. "I suppose that'simpossible anyway, short of cutting you up into small pieces, and Idon't relish that idea. But I'll leave you the snake-skin. It willhave passed the peak of its radioactivity by tomorrow and you canstart back for The Pass. But you won't go back very fast. You've gotlegs on only one side. It's going to be slow navigating, especially onwater. In fact, I think maybe you'll have to wait until you grow somenew legs."
He patted his pockets filled with half a million dollars' worth ofechindul stones. "Long before that I'll be in Aphrodite depositing mystones at the First Interplanetary Bank."
He watched Relegar's eyes turn dead, cold black, then he screwed onhis helmet, adjusted the oxygen, and stepped off into the brown water.He felt rather good, wading through the mud at the bottom of theswamp. He was somewhat astonished that it had fallen to him, a nobody,to be the means of breaking up Relegar's hold on The Pass. But it wasa very satisfactory feeling. He thought about Beth and New Jersey andstrawberries with fresh cream. He sighed happily. His luck hadchanged.
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