it was alive--the faint thrumming in the air, the play of
lights on the boards.

Ross pulled the cowl of his Foanna cloak up over his head. He had had
days to accustom himself to the bulk of the robe, but still its
swathings were sometimes a hindrance rather than a help. Slowly he
turned. There were no Baldies here, but the well door to the lower
levels was open, and from it came small sounds echoing up the
communication ladder. The ship was occupied.

Not for the first time since he had started on this venture Ross wished
for more complete information. Doubtless several of those buttons or
levers before him controlled devices which could be the greatest aid to
him now. But which and how he did not know. Once in just such a cabin he
had meddled and, in activating a long silent installation, had called
the attention of the Baldies to their wrecked ship, to the Terrans
looting it. Only by the merest chance had the vengeance of the stellar
spacemen fallen then on the Russian investigators and not on his own
people.

He knew better than to touch anything before the pilot's station, but
the banks of controls to one side were concerned with the inner
well-being of the ship--and they tempted him. To go it blind was,
however, more of a risk than he dared take. There was one future
precaution for him.

From a very familiar case beside the pilot's seat Ross gathered up a
collection of disks, sorted through them hastily for one which bore a
certain symbol on its covering. There was only one of those. Slapping
the rest back into their container, Ross pressed a button on the control
board.

Again his guess paid off! Another disk was exposed as a small panel slid
back. Ross clawed that out of the holder, put in its place the one he
had found. Now, if his choice had been correct, the crew who took off in
this ship, unless they checked their route tape first, would find
themselves heading to another primitive planet and not returning to
base. Perhaps exhaustion of fuel might ground them past hope of ever
regaining their home port again. Next to damaging the ship, which he
could not do, this was the best thing to assure that any enemy leaving
Hawaika would not speedily return with a second expeditionary force.

Ross dropped the route disk he had taken out into a pocket on his belt,
to be destroyed when he had the chance. Now he catfooted across the deck
to look into the well and listen.

The walls glowed with a diffused light.