he inner door of the air-lock in their bulging space
suits, awaiting his order to leave the tender. He quickly got into a
suit, clamped on the helmet and screwed tight the connections. Then he
opened the door of the air-lock and motioned the others into it,
following the last man in.

Nizzo and Ragna were waiting there, and as the inner door closed,
automatically opening the outer door, they pointed to the cable
stretching away across forty yards of empty space to the side of the big
freighter. Winford could make out faintly the form of Jarl, who was
clambering cautiously up the bulging side of the ship on hands and
knees, seeking the emergency air-lock. Winford beckoned to the others to
follow, and leaped out into space along the cable.

It was a terrifying experience, for no matter how often a man made such
a trip, there was always the primitive fear of falling into those
millions upon millions of miles of space below where the stars gleamed,
red, green, white and blue in the cold depths. Yet a man had no weight.
He merely pulled himself along the cable, which kept him from getting
lost.

He reached the bulging side of the hull and continued upward on hands
and knees, now held to it by its own attraction for his body. The others
followed, and scattered out seeking the emergency entrance lock.

* * * * *

At the end of an hour they were in despair. There was no emergency
entrance lock! Winford bitterly resigned himself to their fate. This was
the end of their daring attempt. He must go forward now to the control
room windows and attract the attention of the navigating officer. It
meant surrender and subsequent death in the teeth of the caged saurians,
but if they remained much longer where they were they would freeze to
death anyway, for the batteries that warmed their suits were running
down under the continued strain, and when they ceased to function, the
deadly cold of interstellar space would claim them. He managed to make
known his intentions to the others and was starting forward when Fate
took a hand.

The prison tender ship, which was still floating at the end of its cable
at the side of the freighter, relinquished itself to the play of the
forces that rule the measureless void and began to set up an orbit of
its own about the bigger ship. It came to the end of its tether and
swung gently against the hull of the freighter, sending a violent
vibration through it; then it reb