nd legs, a
ragged hole through which pumped with every one of those breaths a dark
purplish stream, licked away by the waves as it trickled slickly down
the rock.

"What is that?"

Thorvald shook his head. "Not on our records," he replied absently,
studying the dying creature with avid attention. "Must have been driven
in by the storm. This proves there is more in the sea then we knew!"

Again the forked tail lifted and fell, the head, raised from the
forelimb, stretching up and back until the white underfolds of the
throat were exposed as the snout pointed almost vertically to the sky.
The jaws opened and from between them came a moaning whistle, a
complaint which was drowned out by the wash of the waves. Then, as if
that was the last effort, the webbed, clawed feet relaxed their grip of
the rock and the scaled body slid sidewise, out of their sight, into the
water. There was a feather of spume to mark the plunge and nothing else.

Shann, watching to see if the reptile would surface again, sighted
another object, a rounded shape floating on the sea, bobbing lightly as
had their river raft.

"Look!"

Thorvald's gaze followed his pointing finger and then before Shann could
protest, the officer leaped outward from their perch on the cliff to the
broad rock where the scaled sea dweller had lain moments earlier. He
stood there, watching that drifting object with the closest attention,
as Shann made the same crossing in his wake.

The drifting thing was oval, perhaps some six feet long and three wide,
the mid point rising in a curve from the water's edge. As far as Shann
could make out in the half-light the color was a reddish-brown, the
surface rough. And he thought by the way that it moved that it must be
flotsam of the storm, buoyant enough to ride the waves with close to
cork resiliency. To Shann's dismay his companion began to strip.

"What are you going to do?"

"Get that."

Shann surveyed the water about the rock. The forked tail had sunk just
there. Was the Survey officer mad enough to think he could swim
unmenaced through a sea which might be infested with more such
creatures? It seemed that he was, for Thorvald's white body arched out
in a dive. Shann waited, half crouched and tense, as though he could in
some way attack anything rising from the depths to strike at his
companion.

A brown arm flashed above the surface. Thorvald swam strongly toward the
floating object. He reached it, his outstretched