em. The stuff was adhesive, slimy. Ross let out a
choked cry as the lines tightened about his arms and body, pinioning
him.

Those tightened, wove a net. Now he was being drawn up out of the
plunging skiff, a helpless captive. His flailing legs, still free of the
slimy cords, struck against the side of the larger ship. Then he swung
in, over the well of the deck, thudded down on that surface with
bruising force, unable to understand anything except that he had been
taken prisoner by a very effective device.

Loketh dropped beside him. But Karara was not brought in, and Ross held
to that small bit of hope. Had she made it to freedom by dropping into
the water before the Rovers netted them? He could see men gathering
about him, masked and distorted in the fog. Then he was rolled across
the deck, boosted over the edge of a hatch and knew an instant of terror
as he fell into the depth below.

How long was he unconscious? It could not have been very long, Ross
decided, as he opened his eyes on dark, heard the small sounds of the
ship. He lay very still, trying to remember, to gather his wits before
he tried to flex his arms. They were held tight to his sides by strands
which no longer seemed slimy, but were wrinkling as they dried. There
was an odor from them which gagged him. But there was no loosening of
those loops in spite of his struggles, which grew more intense as his
strength returned. And at last he lay panting, knowing there was no easy
way of escape from here.

9

Battle Test

Babble of speech, cries, sounded muffled to Ross, made a mounting clamor
on the deck. Had the raiders' ship been boarded? Was it now under
attack? He strove to hear and think through the pain in his head, the
bewilderment.

"Loketh?" He was certain that the Hawaikan had been dumped into the same
hold.

The only answer was a low moan, a mutter from the dark. Ross began to
inch his way in that direction. He was no seaman, but during that worm's
progress he realized that the ship itself had changed. The vibration
which had carried through the planks on which he lay was stilled. Some
engine shut off; one portion of his mind put that into familiar terms.
Now the vessel rocked with the waves, did not bore through them.

Ross brought up against another body.

"Loketh!"

"Ahhhhh ... the fire ... the fire--!" The half-intelligible answer held
no meaning for the Terran. "It burns in my head ... the fire--"

The rocking of the