the
heights above the beach of the lagoon a picked band of Rovers should now
be making their way from the opposite side of Kyn Add under strict
orders not to go into attack unless signaled. Whether the independent
sea warriors would hold to that command was a question which had worried
Ross from the first.

Tino-rau and Taua in the waters to the seaward of the reef, the two
Terrans on that barrier itself, and between them and the shore the wild
melee of maddened salkars. Ross started. The sonic warning which had
been pulsing steadily against his skin cut off sharply. The broadcast in
the bay had been silenced! This was the time to move, but no swimmer
could last in the lagoon itself.

"Along the reef," Karara said.

That would be the long way round, Ross knew, but the only one possible.
He studied the cluster of lights ashore. Two or three figures moved
there. Seemingly the attention of the aliens was well centered upon the
battle still in progress in the lagoon.

"Stay here!" he ordered the girl. Adjusting his mask, Ross dropped into
the water, cutting away from the reef and then turning to swim parallel
with it. Tino-rau matched him as he went, guiding Ross to a second break
in the reef, toward the shore some distance from where the conflict of
the salkars still made a hideous din in the night.

The Terran waded in the shallows, stripping off his flippers and
snapping them to his belt, letting his mask swing free on his chest. He
angled toward the beach where the aliens had been. At least he was
better armed for this than he had been when he had fronted the Rovers
with only a diver's knife. From the Time Agent supplies he had taken the
single hand weapon he had long ago found in the armory of the derelict
spaceship. This could only be used sparingly, since they did not know
how it could be recharged, and the secret of its beam still remained
secret as far as Terran technicians were concerned.

Ross worked his way to a curtain of underbrush from which he had a free
view of the beach and the aliens. Three of them he counted, and they
were Baldies, all right--taller and thinner than his own species, their
bald heads gray-white, the upper dome of their skulls overshadowing the
features on their pointed chinned faces. They all wore the skintight
blue-purple-green suits of the space voyagers--suits which Ross knew of
old were insulated and protective for their wearers, as well as a medium
for keeping in touch with on