The pink spots under his eyes spread downwards over his cheeks. Some
half-articulate sounds came from between his thin lips. Then they were
drawn back and showed his smooth, toothless gums. He took a couple of
long, swift strides towards her, and then bent forward, towering over
her with long, outstretched arms, huge, hideous, and half-human.
Zaidie sprang backwards as he came towards her, her right hand went up,
and, just as Redgrave levelled his revolver, and Murgatroyd, true to the
old Berserk instinct, took a rifle by the barrel and swung the stock
above his head, Zaidie pulled her trigger. The bullet cut a clean hole
through the smooth, hairless skull of the Martian. A dark, red spot came
just between his eyes, his huge frame shrank together and collapsed in a
heap on the deck.
"Oh, I've killed him! God forgive me, killed a man!" she whispered, as
her hand fell to her side, and the revolver dropped from her fingers.
"But, Lenox, do you really think it was a man?"
"That thing a man!" he replied between his clenched teeth. "He wanted
you, and spoke English of a sort, so there was something human about
him, but anyhow he's better dead. Here, Andrew, open that door again and
help me to heave this thing overboard. Then I think we'd better be off
before we have the rest of the fleet with their poison guns round us.
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