managed to reach the switch.

Then the final flame of intelligence winked out, and it was night and
unrelieved blackness, and he fell asleep.

CHAPTER XII

Jerry blinked. He opened his eyes and blinked again.

Had Pink made it to the atmospheria?

He must have, for the air was sweet and normal once more. So either Pink
or Joe Silver had saved them. The others had all dropped along the way;
he had passed Daley's motionless form some yards back there--now he
looked, and saw the senior lieutenant sitting up against the wall.

Jerry rubbed his forehead gingerly. What a headache!

By the time he managed to stand, shakily, Joe Silver had appeared in
front of him. Before Jerry could ask questions, the big man said
hoarsely, "Must have been the captain. _I_ passed out before I made the
door." He shook his own head, which evidently ached too. "The blasted
door is now locked. I can't get in."

The three of them went toward the atmospheria, Calico and Sparks
following slowly. Before they reached it, the door opened and the alien
thing emerged, stooping to clear the lintel. In its tree-thick arms lay
Pinkham, apparently lifeless, his head dangling.

"Aside, mortals," the beast mouthed at them, and added, grotesquely,
"goddammit!" They dropped back, it passed them and turned a corner and
vanished. "Wait," said Daley urgently, "don't follow it yet." He
switched on the passage intercom screen. "We'll spy on it with this. If
Pink's alive, we mustn't anger the brute."

Tense, they watched the image of the stranger as it prowled through the
ship, carrying their chief. It passed Randy Kinkare, and they saw him
shrink away, a noise of terror gurgling in his gullet. The lipless
Kinkare had reason to be afraid.

The giant took Pinkham into his own quarters and laid him on a
foam-couch. Then it sat down in an angle of the wall, and its gruesomely
human-like body swelled until it occupied much of the free space in the
cabin.

"To scare him if he wakes," breathed Bill Calico.

"Isn't it frightful enough?" asked Jerry. "I have an idea: if the
Rabelaisian types outside are at their normal size, which seems logical,
then this one may be uncomfortable, having to go around all compressed
to eight feet."

"Could be ... let's advance," said Daley. "We'll wait just outside
Pink's door. Then if it tries anything--"

"Yeah?"

"We'll make a protest," finished Daley. "Somehow, we'll make a strong
protest."

They left the scre