his hand, and set to work skinning the wolf with appreciable
skill. Three more pairs of donkeys, all heavily laden, were led past the
scene before he finished his task. Finally, he rolled the bloody skin
into a bundle and gave the flayed body a kick before he ran lightly
after the disappearing train of pack animals.

CHAPTER 2

Ross, absorbed in the scene before him, was not prepared for the sudden
and complete darkness which blotted out not only the action but the
light in his own room as well.

"What--?" His startled voice rang loudly in his ears, too loudly, for
all sound had been wiped out with the light. The faint swish of the
ventilating system, of which he had not been actively aware until it had
disappeared, was also missing. A trace of the same panic he had known in
the cockpit of the atomjet tingled along his nerves. But this time he
could meet the unknown with action.

Ross slowly moved through the dark, his hands outstretched before him to
ward off contact with the wall. He was determined that somehow he would
discover the hidden door, escape from this dark cell....

There! His palm struck flat against a smooth surface. He swept out his
hand--and suddenly it passed over emptiness. Ross explored by touch.
There _was_ a door and now it was open. For a moment he hesitated, upset
by a nagging little fear that if he stepped through he would be out on
the hillside with the wolves.

"That's stupid!" Again he spoke aloud. And, just because he did feel
uneasy, he moved. All the frustrations of the past hours built up in him
a raging desire to do something--anything--just so long as it was what
_he_ wanted to do and not at another's orders.

Nevertheless, Ross continued to move slowly, for the space beyond that
open door was as deep and dark a pit as the room he left. To squeeze
along one wall, using an outstretched arm as a guide, was the best
procedure, he decided.

A few feet farther on, his shoulder slipped from the surface and he half
tumbled into another open door. But there was the wall again, and he
clung to it thankfully. Another door ... Ross paused, trying to catch
some faint sound, the slightest hint that he was not alone in this
blindman's maze. But without even air currents to stir it, the blackness
itself took on a thick solidity which encased him as a congealing jelly.

The wall ended. Ross kept his left hand on it, flailed out with his
right, and felt his nails scrape across another