They were conscious of a slight
feeling of drowsiness.

Keith gaped at Bowman and Brown, and then a flash on the teleview
screen drew his eyes. There, against the blackness of its otherwise
inanimate hulk, one of the jutting knobs on the bow of the mysterious
submarine was glowing and pulsing with orange life! With it came the
tingling shock again. It flicked off as they watched, then returned
and went once more.

"They're attacking, but thank God the shock was harmless!" Wells said
grimly. "All right; they've asked for it: I'm going to see how they
like the taste of a torpedo!"

* * * * *

The two submarines were resting on the ocean floor with perhaps two
hundred feet between them. The _NX-1's_ bow tubes were not exactly in
line to score a direct hit; she would have to be maneuvered slightly
to port. The range was short; the explosion from the torpedoes would
be titanic.

Keith punched the control studs, ordering the men below to assume
firing stations. Then, while waiting for the _NX-1_ to shift, he
studied the teleview screen to sight the range exactly. The black dot
which represented the enemy craft was not directly on the crossed
hair-lines of the dial-like range-finder, but shifting the _NX-1_ a
few feet would bring it to the perfect firing point.

But the _NX-1_ did not budge.

Surprised, her commander swung and looked at Bowman. "What the devil?"
he cried. "Did that shock--?" He left the dread thought unfinished and
leaped to the speaking tubes.

"Craig! Jones! Wetherby!" he yelled. "Men! Don't you hear me? Aren't
you--"

He broke off, wordless, waiting for an answer that did not come, then
sprang to the connecting ramp and ran to the deck below.

The scene he found halted him abruptly in his tracks. Every member of
the crew was sprawled on the deck, in grotesque, limp postures. They
had been standing rigidly at posts, he saw, when the thing, whatever
it was, had struck. Without a sound, without a single cry of alarm,
the _NX-1's_ crew had been laid low!

* * * * *

The commander slowly advanced to the deck and stared more closely at
the upturned faces around him. He saw that every man's eyes were open.

Bending over one still form, he pressed his hand on the heart. It was
beating! The man was alive! Amazed, he moved to another and another:
they were all breathing, slowly and regularly--were all alive! A
curious look in their eyes s