ickly. Unless, unless the Baldies' mental
communication had been at work ... they might even now know their fellow
was dead.

But not how he died. Ross was prepared to grant the Baldies super-Terran
abilities, but he did not see how they could know what had happened
here. They could only suspect danger, not know the form it had taken.
And sooner or later one of them must come to adjust the switch. This
could be a duel of patience.

Ross squatted at the edge of the well, trying to make his ears supply
him with hints of what might be happening below. Had there been an
alteration in the volume of vibration? He set his palm flat to the deck,
tried to deduce the truth. But he could not be sure. That there had been
some slight change he was certain.

They could not wait much longer without making an attempt to reopen the
air-supply regulator, or could they? Again Ross was hampered by lack of
information. Perhaps the Baldies did not need the same amount of oxygen
his own kind depended upon. And if that were true, Ross could be the
first to suffer in playing a waiting game. Well, air was not the only
thing he could cut off from here, though it had been the first and most
important to his mind. Ross hesitated. Two-edged weapons cut in both
directions. But he had to force a countermove from them. He pulled
another switch. The control cabin, the whole of the ship, was plunged
into darkness.

No sound from below this time. Ross pictured the interior layout of the
ships he had known. Two levels down to reach the engine room. Could he
descend undetected? There was only one way to test that--try it.

He pulled the Foanna cloak about him, was several rungs down on the
ladder when the glow in the walls came on. An emergency switch? With a
forward scramble, Ross swung into one of the radiating side corridors.
The sliding-door panels along it were all closed; he could detect no
sounds behind them. But the vibration in the ship's walls had returned
to its steady beat.

Now the Terran realized the folly of his move. He was more securely
trapped here than he had been in the control cabin. There was only one
way out, up or down the ladder, and the enemy could have that under
observation from below. All they would need to do was to use a flamer or
a paralyzing ray such as the one he had turned over to Ashe several days
ago.

Ross inched along to the stairwell. A faint pad of movement, a shadow of
sound from the ladder. Someone on the