quitting.

The girl's next words, however, made him feel a little better.

"There would be no use lying in at Northwest Harbor at Diablo," she was
saying. "The anchorage is too small and Mascola's boats will overcrowd
it. If you tried to beach anything there, you'd wreck it. At Cavalan we
can check things up, transfer the fish if we have to and get them right
out. We've beaten Mascola, hands down, so why should we care?"

It was well toward morning before the last of the cannery fleet
staggered into the little harbor of Cavalan. Then came the first
opportunity to reckon the cost of Mascola's defeat at Diablo.

Gregory's first thought was for the personnel of his fleet. In the fight
with the alien fishermen several of his men had been injured, but as
near as could be ascertained, none fatally. A number of men had been
slashed by knives, but the injuries for the most part were only flesh
wounds. There were many aching heads and bruised bodies. Two sailors and
a fisherman had been grazed by bullets. One man's arm had been broken.

To a man the various crews made light of their injuries and proudly
maintained that they had left their mark on many a dark-skinned member
of Mascola's aliens.

Bronson had partly recovered and was anxiously inquiring concerning the
behavior of the speed-craft in the storm.

While Gregory directed the transferring of the injured men to the
better equipped launches, Dickie checked up the material damage
inflicted upon the tonnage.

On the _Curlew_ Gregory encountered Hawkins. The newspaper man was
jubilant. The victory over the aliens was just what he needed. He had
anticipated the outcome and had already sent out a full account of the
struggle with the aliens over the radio. The people of Port Angeles
would be reading it in a couple of hours.

As Hawkins assisted Gregory in caring for the needs of the men, the
reporter hinted that he was on the trail of a bigger story which would
make all his former journalistic efforts pale into insignificance. But
when questioned concerning the specific nature of his scoop, Hawkins
became extremely reticent.

Dickie Lang's report upon the condition of the fishing-boats added
materially to the cost of the victory. Four of the craft had been jammed
in the melee and were leaking badly. How they ever made port at all was
a thing she could not understand. Three of the other vessels had
sustained bent shafts and broken propeller blades. All the fleet were