control room, everybody! Fast!" Wells roared.

The men stumbled aft as rapidly as they could in their cumbersome
suits. Several were already on the ladder. A few feet further--

But at that moment the paralyzing ray again stabbed into the ship--and
Keith Wells slumped helplessly to the deck. And as he crumpled, he
glimpsed the grotesque, falling figures of his men, and saw one come
tumbling down the ladder from the control room, where he had almost
reached safety....

* * * * *

Peculiar sensations, unendurable thoughts raced through the commander
as he lay there limply. He knew his predicament. He wanted desperately
to rise, to rush to the control room. Time and time again in those
first few moments of impotence he strove mightily to pull his limbs
back to life. But his greatest efforts were barren of result, save to
leave him feeling still weaker. The fate that he had seen strike down
Brown now enmeshed him. He was paralyzed. Helpless. In the midst of
his crew.

After a moment all sensation left his body. His limbs might not have
existed. Sensation, pain, lived only in his brain--and there it was
terrible, because self-created.

He found himself sprawled flat on his back, his eyes directed stiffly
upward. He could not move them, but out of the corners he vaguely
sensed the other figures around him. Helpless, every one! And who knew
if they would ever come out of the spell! Victory had gone to the
octopi....

Minutes that seemed like hours passed. And then a well-remembered
voice sounded in the radio earphones in his helmet. It was Hemmy
Bowman, speaking from the enemy ship.

"Keith! Keith Wells! Are you there?" the voice cried. "Keith! What
have they done to you?"

And Keith, he could not answer! He could not answer that troubled
voice of his friend--that voice from a friend he had thought dead.

Again Bowman spoke. "Keith! Can't you hear me? What are they doing to
you? Oh--" For a moment it stopped, then came once more, thick with
anguish. "Oh, God, what's happened?" Then lower: "If only there were
light, so I could see what they're doing...." The voice tapered into
silence. Keith could picture Hemmy, probably bound, giving him up for
dead....

* * * * *

Then, quite distinctly, he heard a clank at the _NX-1's_ bow! The
submarine jerked, her bow tilted up--and with increasing speed she
moved forward, silently as a ghost.

Keith thought he