have been the Foanna magic. Fire eating so that a man is
nothing, only that which fire feeds upon!"

Karara! Ross's thoughts flashed back to those few seconds when the
dolphins had seemed to go crazy. Karara had then called out something
about the Foanna. So the dolphins must have felt this, and Karara, and
Loketh. Whatever _it_ was. But why not Ross Murdock?

Karara possessed an extra, undefinable sense which gave her contact with
the dolphins. Loketh had a mind which those could read in turn. But such
communication was closed to Ross.

At first that realization carried with it a feeling of shame and loss.
That he did not have what these others possessed, a subtle power beyond
the body, a part of mind, was humbling. Just as he had felt shut out and
crippled when he had been forced to use the analyzer instead of the
sense the others had, so did he suffer now.

Then Ross laughed shortly. All right, sometimes insensitivity could be a
defense as it had at the sea gate. Suppose his lack could also be a
weapon? He had not been knocked out as the others appeared to be. But
for the bad luck of having been captured before the raiders had
succumbed, Ross could, perhaps, have been master of this ship by now. He
did not laugh now; he smiled sardonically at his own grandiose reaction.
No use thinking about what might have been, just file this fact for
future reference.

A creaking overhead heralded the opening of the hatch. Light lanced down
into the cubby, and a figure swung over and down a side ladder, coming
to stand over Ross, feet apart for balancing, accommodating to the swing
of the vessel with the ease of long practice.

Thus Ross came face to face with his first representative of the third
party in the Hawaikan tangle of power--a Rover.

The seaman was tall, with a heavier development of shoulder and upper
arms than the landsmen. Like the guards he wore supple armor, but this
had been colored or overlaid with a pearly hue in which other tints wove
opaline lines. His head was bare except for a broad, scaled band running
from the nape of his neck to the mid-point of his forehead, a band
supporting a sharply serrated crest not unlike the erect fin of some
Terran fish.

Now as he stood, fists planted on hips, the Rover presented a formidable
figure, and Ross recognized in him the air of command. This must be one
of the ship's officers.

Dark eyes surveyed Ross with interest. The light from the deck focused
directly