d the
hatch shut. Greg pulled the stunner from his holster and tossed it to
Tom. The guard let out a roar, twisted free, and met Johnny's fist as he
came around. He sagged at the knees and slid to the floor beside the
other guard. "All right," Johnny said, "we've dealt the cards, now we'd
better play the hand. Tom, you first."

Tom pulled the ventilator grill down, and climbed up into the shaft.
Greg followed, with Johnny at his heels, pulling the grill back up into
place from the inside. They waited for a moment, but there was no sound
from the lounge.

"All right," Johnny said breathlessly. "Let's move."

Swiftly they started down the dark tunnel.

11. The Haunted Ship

They did not pause, even to catch their breath, for the first twenty
minutes as Tom led them swiftly and silently down through the maze of
corridors and chutes that made up the ventilation system of the huge
ship. Greg lost his bearing completely in the first twenty seconds; each
time his brother paused at a junction of tubes, he felt a wave of panic
rise up in his throat ... suppose they lost themselves in here! He heard
Johnny's trousers flapping behind him, saw Tom's figure flit past
another grill up ahead, and plunged doggedly on.

It was amazingly hard to move quietly. Even in stocking feet they made a
soft thud with each footfall.

But there was no sign of detection, no sound of alarm. Finally they came
out into a large shaft which allowed them to stand upright, and they
stopped to catch their breath.

"Main tube to the living quarters," Tom said when they had caught up to
him. "Joins with the lower-level tube by a series of chutes. We've
actually been circumnavigating the ship ... I wanted to get as far away
from that lounge compartment as possible, in case they check up on you
right away."

"We can't have much time," Johnny said. "That second guard must have
been coming to relieve the other, and when the first one doesn't report
back, they'll smell something fishy."

* * * * *

They talked it over for a moment. Johnny had been careful to leave the
hatchway into the corridor ajar before he climbed into the ventilator
shaft, and then he had pulled the shaft snugly into place behind him.
Anyone who came would find two unconscious guards, a burnt-out hole in
the wall, and the door unlocked.

"We'll hope that he takes things at face value, and assumes we're at
large in the ship somewhere, for a