rent helmets
as they did so. For a few moments the visitors silently surveyed their
new surroundings.

Their leader was a swarthy individual with sardonic black eyes who, on
noticing Crain's captain-insignia, came toward him with outstretched
hand. His followers seemed to be cargo-men or deck-men, looking hardly
intelligent enough to Kent's eyes to be tube-men.

* * * * *

"Welcome to our city!" their leader exclaimed as he shook Crain's hand.
"We saw your ship drift in, but hardly expected to find anyone living in
it."

"I'll confess that we're surprised ourselves to find any life here,"
Crain told him. "You're living on one of the wrecks?"

The other nodded. "Yes, on the _Martian Queen_, a quarter-mile along the
pack's edge. It was a Saturn-Neptune passenger ship, and about a month
ago we were at this cursed dead-area's edge, when half our rocket-tubes
exploded. Eighteen of us escaped the explosion, the ship's walls still
being tight; and we drifted into the pack here, and have been living
here ever since."

"My name's Krell," he added, "and I was a tube-man on the ship. I and
another of the tube-men, named Jandron, were the highest in rank left,
all the officers and other tube-men having been killed, so we took
charge and have been keeping order."

"What about your passengers?" Liggett asked.

"All killed but one," Krell answered. "When the tubes let go they
smashed up the whole lower two decks."

Crain briefly explained to him the _Pallas'_ predicament. "Mr. Kent and
Mr. Liggett were on the point of starting a search of the wreck-pack for
fuel when you arrived," he said, "With enough fuel we can get clear of
the dead-area."

Krell's eyes lit up. "That would mean a getaway for all of us! It surely
ought to be possible!"

"Do you know whether there are any ships in the pack with fuel in their
tanks?" Kent asked. Krell shook his head.

"We've searched through the wreck-pack a good bit, but never bothered
about fuel, it being no good to us. But there ought to be some, at
least: there's enough wrecks in this cursed place to make it possible
to find almost anything.

"You'd better not start exploring, though," he added, "without some of
us along as guides, for I'm here to tell you that you can lose yourself
in this wreck-pack without knowing it. If you wait until to-morrow, I'll
come over myself and go with you."

"I think that would be wise," Crain said to Kent. "There is plen