iled them. But to smash blindly against their main
base would be the act of madmen."

"The salkars opened a way for us--" That was Torgul.

"But we can not move a pack of those inland to the mountains," Vistur
pointed out reasonably.

Ross studied the Captain. That Torgul was groping for a plan and that it
had to be a shrewd one, the Terran guessed. His respect for the Rover
commander had been growing steadily since their first meeting. The
cruiser-raiders had always been captained by the most daring men of the
Rover clans. But Ross was also certain that a successful cruiser
commander must possess a level-headed leaven of intelligence and be a
strategist of parts.

The Hawaikan force needed a key which would open the Baldy base as the
salkars had opened the lagoon. And all they had to aid them was a
handful of facts gained from their prisoners.

Oddly enough the picklock to the captives' minds had been produced by
the dolphins. Just as Tino-rau and Taua had formed a bridge of
communication between the Terran and Loketh, so did they read and
translate the thoughts of the galactic invaders. For the Baldies, among
their own kind, were telepathic, vocalizing only to give orders to
inferiors.

Their capture by these primitive "inferiors" had delivered the first
shock, and the mind-probes of the dolphins had sent the "supermen" close
to the edge of sanity. To accept an animal form as an equal had been
shattering.

But the star men's thoughts and memories had been winnowed at last and
the result spread before this impromptu council. Rovers and Terrans were
briefed on the invaders' master plan for taking over a world. Why they
desired to do so even the dolphins had not been able to discover;
perhaps they themselves had not been told by their superiors.

It was a plan almost contemptuous in its simplicity, as if the galactic
force had no reason to fear effective opposition. Except in one
direction--one single direction.

Ross's fingers tightened on the shell cup. Had Torgul reached that
conclusion yet, the belief that the Foanna could be their key? If so,
they might be able to achieve their separate purposes in one action.

"It would seem that they are wary of the Foanna," he suggested, alert to
any telltale response from Torgul. But it was Jazia who answered the
Terran's half question.

"The Foanna have a powerful magic; they can order wind and wave, man and
creature--if so be their will. Well might these killers