for volunteers
for this service."

The entire crew stepped quickly forward. Crain smiled. "Twelve of you
will be enough," he told them. "The eight tube-men and four of the
cargo-men will go, therefore, with Mr. Kent and Mr. Liggett as leaders.
Mr. Kent, you may address the men if you wish."

"Get down to the lower airlock and into your space-suits at once, then,"
Kent told them. "Mr. Liggett, will you supervise that?"

As Liggett and the men trooped down to the airlock, Kent turned back
toward his superior.

"There's a very real chance of your becoming lost in this huge
wreck-pack, Kent," Crain told him: "so be very careful to keep your
bearings at all times. I know I can depend on you."

"I'll do my best," Kent was saying, when Liggett's excited face
reappeared suddenly at the stair.

"There are men coming toward the _Pallas_ along the wreck-pack's edge!"
he reported--"a half-dozen men in space-suits!"

"You must be mistaken, Liggett!" exclaimed Crain. "They must be some of
the bodies in space-suits we saw in the pack."

"No, they're living men!" Liggett cried. "They're coming straight toward
us--come down and see!"

* * * * *

Crain and Kent followed Liggett quickly down to the airlock room, where
the men who had started donning their space-suits were now peering
excitedly from the windows. Crain and Kent looked where Liggett pointed,
along the wreck-pack's edge to the ship's right.

Six floating shapes, men in space-suits, were approaching along the
pack's border. They floated smoothly through space, reaching the wrecked
passenger-ship beside the _Pallas_. They braced their feet against its
side and propelled themselves on through the void like swimmers under
water, toward the _Pallas_.

"They must be survivors from some wreck that drifted in here as we did!"
Kent exclaimed. "Maybe they've lived here for months!"

"It's evident that they saw the _Pallas_ drift into the pack, and have
come to investigate," Crain estimated. "Open the airlock for them, men,
for they'll want to come inside."

Two of the men spun the wheels that slid aside the airlock's outer door.
In a moment the half-dozen men outside had reached the ship's side, and
had pulled themselves down inside the airlock.

When all were in, the outer door was closed, and air hissed in to fill
the lock. The airlock's inner door then slid open and the newcomers
stepped into the ship's interior, unscrewing their transpa