a big joke on everybody? Especially me._

Ahead was the large area that had been one of the major junction points
of the tunnel network. This was the area that the Nipe had taken over to
build his home-away-from-home. Here were his workshops, his
laboratories, his storerooms.

And somewhere here was the Nipe.

He came out of the tunnel into another passenger-loading area. Just to
his left was another short stairway that led up to a slightly higher
level. He moved slowly and quietly. He didn't want to fight down here on
the tracks, and he didn't want to be caught just yet.

Cautiously he lifted himself to the platform where long-gone passengers
had once waited for long-gone trains.

The quality of the illumination at the head of the stairs was different
from that which he had been used to for the past three hours. He lifted
off the infra-red goggles. Enough light spilled over from the Nipe's
lair to give him illumination to see by. Silently, he put the goggles on
the floor of the platform. He wouldn't need them again.

Then, step by step, he walked up the concrete stairway.

At the head of the stairs, he paused to get his bearings.

The illumination was not bright, but it was enough to--

"Barbell! He's heard you! Watch it!"

But Stanton had already heard the movement of the Nipe. He jerked off
the communicator and threw it down the stairs behind him. He wanted no
encumbrances now!

He ran quickly out into the center of the big underground room, away
from the open stairwell.

And then, as fast as any express train that had ever moved through these
subterranean ways, the Nipe came around a corner thirty feet away, his
four violet eyes gleaming, his limbs rippling beneath his centipede-like
body.

From fifteen feet away, he launched himself through the air, his
outstretched hands ready to kill.

But Stanton's marvelous neuromuscular system was already in action.

At this stage of the game, it would be utter suicide to let the Nipe
get in close. Stanton couldn't fend off eight grasping hands with his
own two. He leaped to one side, and the Nipe got his first surprise in
ten years when Stanton's fist slammed against the side of his snouted
head, knocking him in the direction opposite that in which Stanton had
moved.

The Nipe landed, turned, and charged back toward the man. This time he
reared up, using his two rearmost pairs of limbs for locomotion, while
the two forward pairs were held out, ready to ki