as typical, grubbing through the slime of
the swamp, snarling at each other, now and again fighting over a leaf,
then squatting down in the mud where they were, to chew on it, their
torture of mind and body momentarily forgotten. Rags, mud-caked and
foul, partly covered their emaciated bodies: their hair was matted,
their eyes blood-shot....

Carse noted their position and looked up at Friday.

"Get the Master Scientist for me, please," he requested. The radio
connection took only seconds: and then he said into the microphone:

"Eliot? We're directly above you, as you probably have seen. All
well?"

"Yes, Carse. The laboratory's in readiness. But those
isuanacs--they're still outside."

"I've seen them, and I'm going to drive them away. Then I'll be down
to you. Have the upper entrance ready."

* * * * *

The Hawk turned back to the controls. Taking the space-stick out of
neutral, he moved it very slightly down and to one side. Ban and
Friday, not understanding his intention, watched the visi-screen.

The whole mass of rock that was the asteroid changed position at a
gentle speed. The band of isuanacs came nearer and nearer, and then
were to the right. Completely oblivious of the great bulk hovering
above them, they continued their grubbing through the swamp; and then
the asteroid was over the jungle beyond them, and lowering its craggy
under-side.

The under-side brushed the crown of the jungle. The trees bent,
crackled and broke, as if swept by a vicious but silent hurricane.
Only a moment of contact; but in that moment a square mile of
interwoven trees and vines was swept low--and to the isuanacs the
effect, as was intended, was terrifying.

They stared at the phenomenon. There had been no sound, no whip of
wind, nothing--yet all those trees had bent and crashed splintering to
the ground. Their slavering lips open, the isuan weed forgotten, they
stared: and then howling and shrieking they broke and went splashing
off panic-stricken through the marsh.

In five minutes the band had disappeared into the jungle in the
opposite direction and the district was cleared; and by that time
Hawk Carse was again in his space-suit, out of the control room and
busy at the mechanism of one of the great ship-sized port-locks in the
dome, having left behind him both Ban and Friday to guard Dr. Ku.

He mastered the controls of the port-lock quickly, and swung inner and
outer doors open. He