brings the skiff?" he asked the Polynesian.

She nodded. "We followed from the gate. Then Loketh came and said that
... that...." She paused and then added, "But you do not seem to be in
danger. What has happened?"

"Much. Listen--this is important. There is trouble at an island ahead.
The Baldies were there; they murdered the kin of these men. The odds are
they reached there by some form of sub. Send one of the dolphins to see
what is happening and if they are still there...."

Karara asked no more questions, but whistled to the dolphin. With a flip
of tail Tino-rau took off.

Since they could make no concrete plan of action, the cruiser captains
agreed to wait for Tino-rau's report and to cruise well out of sight of
the fairing harbor until it came.

"This belief in magic," Ross remarked to Karara, "has one advantage. The
natives seem able to take in their stride the fact the dolphins will
scout for us."

"They have lived their lives on the sea; for it they must have a vast
respect. Perhaps they know, as did my people, that the ocean has many
secrets, some of which are never revealed except to the forms of life
which claim their homes there. But, even if you discover this Baldy sub,
what will the Rovers be able to do about it?"

"I don't know--yet." Ross could not tell why he clung to the idea that
they could do anything to strike back at the superior alien force. He
only knew that he was not yet willing to relinquish the thought that in
some way they could.

"And Ashe?"

Yes, Ashe....

"I don't know." It hurt Ross to admit that.

"Back there, what really happened at the gate?" he asked Karara. "All at
once the dolphins seemed to go crazy."

"I think for a moment or two they did. You felt nothing?"

"No."

"It was like a fire slashing through the head. Some protective device of
the Foanna, I think."

A mental defense to which he was not sensitive. Which meant that he
might be able to breach that gate if none of the others could. But he
had to be there first. Suppose, just suppose Torgul could be persuaded
that this attack on the gutted Kyn Add was useless. Would the Rover
commander take them back to the Foanna keep? Or with the dolphins and
the skiff could Ross himself return to make the try?

That he could make it on his own, Ross doubted. Excitement and will
power had buoyed him up throughout the past Hawaikan day and night. Now
fatigue closed in, past his conditioning and the built-in stimulan