yielded to the tug of the slimy, sulphur-smelling tentacle,
letting it pull him into the crevice, the charges of Krenski's weapon
crackling by him, leaving his skin dry, and a powdery sensation in his
mouth.

In the shelter of the crevice, Asher turned his gun upon the Petrolia
that gripped him. The tentacles fell away, fading to nothingness
before the charges that showed quivery blue in the dark. Like
catacombs, one crevice opened into another. Asher darted into the next
crevice and edged cautiously toward the control cavern.

The angry buzzing and snapping of Krenski's weapon caused him to duck
instinctively, although no deadly charges came his way.

"Oh, God!" he heard the Russian's high-pitched voice, agonized,
wailing, "they're coming in--they're coming in!"

A squeaking and slithering, now greater than ever, rose above all
other sounds. And Asher realized what Krenski meant. Lee Wong had said
that only he could control the Petrolia. They were swarming into the
control room now. That was what Krenski was shooting at.

The squeaking sounds came up the crevice in which Asher was and a
cold, clammy sweat broke out all over him. He could blast a thousand
of them into nothing. But by sheer force, more body than his light
static gun could down, they would overwhelm him.

His mind raced swiftly. He remembered the location, out in the control
room, of the cage elevator that ran to the surface. It had not been
hurt by the glycerine blast that had trapped Asher. The elevator shaft
from the control room was cased clear into the cavern floor, and the
blast had not jarred this far.

* * * * *

He wheeled and sent another charge of static electricity into the
crevice back of him, then lunged out into the control room. It would
be his own weapon against Krenski's, and a chance to gain the bottom
of the shaft.

Krenski--piled, charred heaps of the Petrolia around him, which had
momentarily cleared the attack--was running across the control room.
Like a seething wave, the foul Petrolia undulated from every crevice
and hallway, coming in to fresh attack. The Russian, terror lending
him speed, raced for the cage at the foot of the shaft that led to the
surface. At the same time Asher ran out.

Nearly a hundred feet apart, on opposite sides of the cavern, they
stopped. Krenski turned his heavy weapon toward Asher at the same time
Asher sent his own gun crackling and snapping out blue, fiery f