k his grip on the hand weapon and pin him to the
sand. Ross was too intent upon his own part of the struggle to heed the
sounds of a shot over his head and a thin, wailing cry. He slammed his
opponent's hand against a stone, and the white face, inches away from
his own, twisted silently with pain.

Fumbling for a better hold, Ross was sent rolling. He came down on his
left hand with a force which brought tears to his eyes and stopped him
just long enough for the other to regain his feet.

The blue-suited man sprinted back to the body of his fellow where it lay
by the drift. He slung his unconscious comrade over the barrier with
more ease than Ross would have believed possible and vaulted the barrier
after him. Ross, half crouched on the sand, felt unusually light and
empty. The strange tie which had drawn and held him to the strangers had
been broken.

"Murdock!"

A rubber raft rode in on the waves, two men aboard it. Ross got up,
pulling at the studs of his suit with his right hand. He could believe
in what he saw now--the sub had not left, after all. The two men running
toward him through the dusk were of his own kind.

"Murdock!"

It did not seem at all strange that Kelgarries reached him first. Ross,
caught up in this dream, appealed to the major for aid with the studs.
If the strangers from the ship did trace him by the suit, they were not
going to follow the sub back to the post and serve the project as they
had the Reds.

"Got--to--get--this--off--" He pulled the words out one by one, tugging
frantically at the stubborn studs. "They can trace this and follow
us--"

Kelgarries needed no better explanation. Ripping loose the fastenings,
he pulled the clinging fabric from Ross, sending him reeling with pain
as he pulled the left sleeve down the younger man's arm.

The wind and spray were ice on his body as they dragged him down to the
raft, bundling him aboard. He did not at all remember their arrival on
board the sub. He was lying in the vibrating heart of the undersea ship
when he opened his eyes to see Kelgarries regarding him intently. Ashe,
a coat of bandage about his shoulder and chest, lay on a neighboring
bunk. McNeil stood watching a medical corpsman lay out supplies.

"He needs a shot," the medic was saying as Ross blinked at the major.

"You left the suit--back there?" Ross demanded.

"We did. What's this about them tracing you by it? Who was tracing you?"

"Men from the space ship. That's