"Run, kid!"
She shook herself like a puppy climbing out of water. Her small fingers
closed like a steel trap on my wrist. "This way," she urged in a hasty
whisper, and I found myself plunging out the far end of the alley and
into the shelter of a street-shrine. The sour stink of incense smarted
in my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping of the Ya-men as they
leaped and rustled down the alley, their cold and poisonous eyes
searching out the recess where I crouched with the girl.
"Here," she panted, "stand close to me on the stone--" I drew back,
startled.
"Oh, don't stop to argue," she whimpered. "Come _here_!"
"_Hai-ai!_ Earthman! There he is!"
The girl's arms flung round me again. I felt her slight, hard body
pressing on mine and she literally hauled me toward the pattern of
stones at the center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if I
hadn't caught her closer yet.
The world reeled. The street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights,
stars danced crazily, and I plunged down through a widening gulf of
empty space, locked in the girl's arms.
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