ent of the eyelid?
And this is so--behold!"

It was the oldest trick in the world, perhaps on any planet. But because
it was so old maybe it had been forgotten by the aliens. For, as Ross
pointed, those heads did turn for an instant.

He was in the air, the robe gathered in his arms wide spread as bat
wings. And then they crashed in a tangle which bore them all back
against the controls. Ross strove to enmesh them in the robe, using the
pressure of his body to slam them all on the buttons and levers of the
board. Whether that battering would accomplish his purpose, he could not
tell. But that he had only these few seconds torn out of time to try, he
knew, and determined to use them as best he could.

One of the Baldies had slithered down to the floor and another was
aiming strangely ineffectual blows at him. But the third had wriggled
free to bring up a paralyzer. Ross slewed around, dragging the alien he
held across his body just as the other fired. But though the fighter
went limp and heavy in Ross's hold, the Terran's own right arm fell to
his side, his upper chest was numb, and his head felt as if one of the
Rover's boarding axes had clipped it. Ross reeled back and fell, his
left hand raking down the controls as he went. Then he lay on the cabin
floor and saw the convulsed face of the commander above him, a paralyzer
aiming at his middle.

To breathe was an effort Ross found torture to endure. The red haze in
his head filled all the world. Pain--he strove to flee the pain but was
held captive in it. And always the pressure on him kept that agony
steady.

"Let ... be...." He wanted to scream that. Perhaps he had, but the
pressure continued. Then he forced his eyes open. Ashe--Ashe and one of
the Foanna bending over him, Ashe's hands on his chest, pressing,
relaxing, pressing again.

"It is good--" He knew Ynvalda's voice. Her hand rested lightly on his
forehead and from that touch Ross drew again the quickening of body and
spirit he had felt on the dancing floor.

"How--?" He began and then changed to--"Where--?" For this was not the
engine room of the spacer. He lay in the open, with sweet, rain-wet wind
filling his starved lungs now without Ashe's force aid.

"It is over," Ashe told him, "all over--for now."

But not until the sun reached the canyon hours later and they sat in
council, did Ross learn all the tale. Just as he had made his own plan
for reaching the spacer, so had Ashe, Karara, and the dol