surface. The space
separating the two surfaces was wider than any doorway. Was it a
cross-corridor? He was about to make a wider arm sweep when he heard a
sound. He was not alone.

Ross went back to the wall, flattening himself against it, trying to
control the volume of his own breathing in order to catch the slightest
whisper of the other noise. He discovered that lack of sight can confuse
the ear. He could not identify those clicks, the wisp of fluttering
sound that might be air displaced by the opening of another door.

Finally, he detected something moving at floor level. Someone or
something must be creeping, not walking, toward him. Ross pushed back
around the corner. It never occurred to him to challenge that crawler.
There was an element of danger in this strange encounter in the dark; it
was not meant to be a meeting between fellow explorers.

The sound of crawling was not steady. There were long pauses, and Ross
became convinced that each rest was punctuated by heavy breathing as if
the crawler was finding progress a great and exhausting effort. He
fought the picture that persisted in his imagination--that of a wolf
snuffling along the blacked-out hall. Caution suggested a quick retreat,
but Ross's urge to rebellion held him where he was, crouching, straining
to see what crept toward him.

Suddenly there was a blinding flare of light, and Ross's hands went to
cover his dazzled eyes. And he heard a despairing, choked exclamation
from near to floor level. The same steady light that normally filled
hall and room was bright again. Ross found himself standing at the
juncture of two corridors--momentarily, he was absurdly pleased that he
had deduced that correctly--and the crawler--?

A man--at least the figure was a two-legged, two-armed body reasonably
human in outline--was lying several yards away. But the body was so
wrapped in bandages and the head so totally muffled, that it lacked all
identity. For that reason it was the more startling.

One of the mittened hands moved slightly, raising the body from the
ground so it could squirm forward an inch or so. Before Ross could move,
a man came running into the corridor from the far end. Murdock
recognized Major Kelgarries. He wet his lips as the major went down on
his knees beside the creature on the floor.

"Hardy! Hardy!" That voice, which carried the snap of command whenever
it was addressed to Ross, was now warmly human. "Hardy, man!" The
major's hands