re and watch, Hendricks," I ordered. "I'll look on the other
side. I believe we've got them all!"

I hurried, as best I could, around to the other side of the _Ertak_. Her
hull was pitted and corroded, but there was no other evidence of the
crescent-shaped things which had so nearly brought about the ship's
untimely, ghastly end.

"Hendricks!" I emanated happily. "'Nothing Less Than Complete Success!'
And that's ours right now! They're gone--all of them!"

I slipped the contrivances from my shoulders and ran back to the other
side of the ship. Hendricks was executing some weird sort of dance,
patting the containers, swinging them wildly about his body, with an
understandable fondness.

"Come inside, you idiot," I suggested, "and tell us how you did it. And
see how it feels to be a hero!"

* * * * *

"It was just luck," Hendricks tried to make us believe, a few minutes
later, when Kincaide, Correy, and myself were through slapping his back
and shaking his hands. "When you, sir, splashed into the water, I had
just torn off my mask. I saw some of the water fall on one of the things
clustered upon your helmet, and I distinctly heard it hiss, as it fell.
And where it fell, it made a ragged hole, which very slowly closed up,
leaving a dim spot in the tentacle where the hole had been. As I figure
it, the water--to put it crudely--short-circuited the electrical energy
of the things. That, too, is just a guess, but I think it's a good one.

"Of course, it was a long chance, but it seemed like our only one. There
was nothing more or less than acidulated water in the containers; and
the air flasks, of course, were merely to supply the pressure to throw
the water out in a powerful spray. It happened to work, and there isn't
anybody any happier about it than I am. I'm young, and there're lots of
things I want to do before I bleach my bones on a little deserted world
like this, that isn't important enough to even have a name!"

That was typical of Hendricks. He was a practical scientist, willing and
eager to try out his own devices. A man of action first--as a man should
be.

* * * * *

None of us, I think, spent a really easy moment until the _Ertak_ was
back at Base. Our outer hull was weakened by at least half, and we were
obliged to increase the degree of vacuum there and thus place the major
portion of the load on the inner skin. It was a ticklish business,