“Save the lecture, will you, Doc. Dallas, can you and Tex take this guy on, maybe slow him down before he breaks something?”

“Putting a bullet through him will slow him down a lot.”

“No! Positively not. This studio does not indulge in murder, even for self-defense.”

“All right, if that’s the way you want it—but this goes under the personal jeopardy bonus in the contract.”

“I know! I know! Now get out there before—”

Barney was interrupted by a thud, then a tinkling crash followed by even louder howls of victory.

“I can understand what he is saying!” Jens Lyn chortled happily. “He is bragging that he has taken out the monster’s eye…”

“The big slob has chopped off one of the headlights!” Dallas shouted. “Keep him busy, Tex, I’ll be right with you. Draw him away from here.”

Tex Antonelli slid out of the cab and ran down the beach away from the truck, where he was seen by the berserk axman, who instantly began to pursue him. At about fifty yards distance Tex stopped and picked up two fist-sized stones, well rounded by the sea, and bounced one of them in his palm like a baseball, waiting calmly until his raging attacker was closer. At five yards he let fly at the man’s head and, as soon as the shield had been swung up to intercept the stone, he hurled the other at the Viking’s middle. Both stones were in the air at the same time and even as the first one was bounding away from the shield the second caught the man in the pit of the stomach: he sat down with a loud woosh. Tex moved a few feet away and picked up two more stones.

“Bleyoa!”

“Yeah, and you’re one too. C’mon buddy, the bigger they are, the harder they splat.”

“Let’s wrap him up,” Dallas said, coming out from behind the truck and spinning a loop of rope around his head. “The Prof is getting jittery about his gadgets and wants to go back.”

“Okay, I’ll set him up for you.”