ly back to the ship.

"Well," I commented, trying to keep my voice reasonably free from the
feelings which gripped me, "I believe we're beaten, Hendricks. At least,
we're helpless against them. Our only chance is that they'll leave us
before they have eaten through the second skin; so long as we still have
that, we can live ... and perhaps be found."

"I doubt they'll leave us while there's a scrap of metal left, sir,"
said Hendricks slowly. "Something's brought them from their usual
haunts. There's no reason why they should leave a certainty for an
uncertainty. But we're not quite through trying. I saw something--have I
your permission to make another try at them? Alone, sir?"

"Any chance of success, lad?" I asked, searching his eyes.

"A chance, sir," he replied, his glance never wavering. "I can be ready
in a few minutes."

"Then, go ahead--on one condition: that you let me come with you."

"Very good, sir; as you wish. Have two other breathing masks ready. I'll
be back very soon."

And he left me hastily, taking the steps of the companionway two at a
time.

* * * * *

It was nearly an hour before Hendricks returned, bringing with him two
of the most amazing pieces of apparatus I have ever seen.

To make each of them, he had taken a flask of compressed air from our
emergency stores, and run a flexible tube from it into a cylindrical
drinking water container. Another tube, which I recognized as being a
part of our fire-extinguishers, and terminating in a metal nozzle,
sprouted from the water container. Both tubes were securely sealed into
the mouth of the metal cylinder, and lengths of hastily-knotted rope had
been bound around each contrivance so that the two heavy containers, the
air flask and the small water tank could be slung from the shoulders.

"Here, sir," he said hastily, "get into a breathing mask, and put on
these things as you see me do. No time to explain anything now, except
this: as soon as you're outside the ship, turn the valve that opens the
compressed air flask. Hold this hose, coming from the water container,
in your right hand. Don't touch the metal nozzle. Use the hose just as
you'd use a portable disintegrator-ray projector."

I nodded, and followed his instructions as swiftly as possible. The two
containers were heavy, but I adjusted their ropes across my shoulders so
that my left hand had easy access to the valve of the air flask, and the
water con