Jeff looked back once to see the Zid close the distance between and
spring upward to the tail fluke behind him. He had an instant conviction
that the brute's second spring would see him torn to bits, but the Scoop
at the moment found water deep enough to move in earnest. The Zid could
only sink in all six taloned limbs and hold fast.

The hundred-odd yards from cabin to beach passed in a blur of speed. The
Scoop reached deeper water and submerged, throwing a mountainous billow
that sent the _Island Queen_ reeling and all but foundered her.

Jeff was dislodged instantly and sank like a stone.

He came up, spouting water and fighting for breath, to find himself a
perilous twenty feet from the Zid. The Zid, utterly out of its element,
screamed hideously and threshed water to froth, all its earlier ferocity
vanished under the imminent and unfamiliar threat of drowning. Jeff sank
again and churned desperately to put distance between them.

He came up again, nearly strangled, to find that either he or the Zid
had halved the distance between them. They were all but eye to eye when
Jennifer caught him and towed him away toward the doubtful safety of the
_Island Queen_.

Chafis Three and Four appeared from nowhere and stood solemnly by while
the Zid weakened and sank with a final gout of bubbles.

"We must have your friend's help," Chafi Three said to Jennifer then,
"to recover our investment."

Jeff wheeled on him incredulously. "_Me_ go down there after that
monster? Not on your--"

"He means the Scoop," Jennifer said. "They brought it ashore to help us
out of the cabin. Why shouldn't it help them now?"

* * * * *

The Scoop came up out of the water so smoothly that the _Island Queen_
hardly rocked, dangling the limp form of the Zid from its great rubbery
lips like a drowned kitten.

"Here," Jennifer said.

The Scoop touched its vast face to the _Queen's_ rail and dropped the
unconscious body to the deck. The Zid twitched weakly and coughed up
froth and water.

Jeff backed away warily. "Damn it, are we going through all that again?
Once it gets its wind back--"

Chafi Three interrupted him this time. "The crystal now. We must have it
to quiet the Zid until it is safely caged again."

Jennifer turned suddenly firm. "No. I won't let this EI informer know
about that."

The Ciriimians were firmer.

"It will not matter now. Galactic Adjustment will extend aid to both
Calaxia a