knife. It hacked harmlessly into the
shark-skin garment of one of the men, and I stabbed out again. Two of
the men leaped for my right arm, but the knife found, this time, the
throat of the third. My beam of light showed palely red, for a moment,
and the body of the Rorn toppled slowly to the bed of the ocean.

The two shark-faced creatures were hammering at me with their fists,
dragging at my arms and legs, but I plunged on desperately towards
Mercer. Myriads of fish, all shapes and colors and sizes, attracted by
the light, swarmed around us.

"Good boy!" Mercer commended. "See if you can break this last flask of
acid, here at my waist. See--"

* * * * *

With a last desperate plunge, fairly dragging the two Rorn who tugged
at me, I fell forward. With the clenched steel talons of my right
hand, I struck at the silvery flask I could see dangling from Mercer's
waist. I hit it, but only a glancing blow; the flask did not shatter.

"Again!" commanded Mercer. "It's heavy annealed glass--hydrocyanic
acid--terrible stuff--even the fumes--"

I paid but slight heed. The two Rorn dragged me back, but I managed to
crawl forward on my knees, and with all my strength, I struck at the
flask again.

This time it shattered, and I lay where I fell, sobbing with weakness,
looking out through the side window of my head-piece.

The five Rorn seemed to suddenly lose their strength. They struggled
limply for a moment, and then floated down to the waiting sand
beneath us.

"Finish," remarked Mercer coolly. "And just in time. Let's see if we
can find our way back to the _Santa Maria_."

* * * * *

We were weary, and we plodded along slowly, twin trails of air-bubbles
like plumes waving behind us, rushing upwards to the surface. I felt
strangely alone at the moment, isolated, cut off from all mankind, on
the bottom of the Atlantic.

"Coming to meet you, all of us," Imee signaled us. "Be careful where
you step, so that you do not walk in a circle and find again the Place
of Darkness. It is very large."

"Probably some uncharted deep," threw in Mercer. "Only the larger ones
have been located."

For my part, I was too weary to think. I just staggered on.

A crowd of slim, darting white shapes surrounded us. They swam before
us, showing the way. The five patriarchs walked majestically before
us; and between us, smiling at us through the thick lenses of our
headpiece