e shock.
Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat, like
our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling upon
everything. And our walls were bulging. The silence and the deadly chill
of death would soon be here in these wrecked corridors. The end of the
_Planetara_. I wondered vaguely if the walls would explode.

We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by the
shifter-pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled. Dead?
No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemed confused,
but his senses clarified with the movement of our figures over him.

"Gregg! Why, Anita!"

"Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping."

* * * * *

He pushed me away. He tried to stand. "I'm all right. I was up a minute
ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had her here--she wasn't
killed. I spoke to her."

Irrational!

"Snap!" I held him, shook him. "Snap, old fellow!"

He said, normally. "Easy, Gregg. I'm all right now."

Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?"

"She! There she is."

Another figure was here! On the grid-floor by the door oval. A figure
partly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hood. An invisible
cloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me. The face of a
girl.

Venza!

I bent down. "You!"

Anita cried, "Venza!"

Venza here? Why--how--my thoughts swept away. Venza here, dying? Her
eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita. "Where is he? I want him."

Dying? I murmured impulsively, "Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as one
would speak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. "Here I am, Venza."

But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was upon us
all. She pushed at Anita. "I want him." She saw me. This whimsical Venus
girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by the shock, confused
in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill of death coming--even here she
could make a jest. Her pale lips smiled.

"You, Gregg. I'm not hurt--I don't think I'm hurt." She managed to get
herself up on one elbow. "Did you think I wanted you with my dying
breath? Why, what conceit! Not you, Handsome Haljan! I was calling
Snap."

* * * * *

He was down to her. "We're all right, Venza. It's over. We must get out
of the ship--the air is escaping."

We gathered in the oval doorway. We fought the confusion of panic.

"The exit port is