er machine is firing terminite into the
cavern. What a high degree of intelligence that thing has! Too bad
we'll have to smash it." He sighed. I verily believe he hated to
destroy this brain child of his. Yet just how he was going to do it, I
did not know.

* * * * *

There passed hours of weary, tortured stumblings, and slitherings, and
sudden falls--down, always down, interminably. A pale glimmering
showed us the way, a dim shining through the icy walls.

At last, faint with toil, bleeding and torn from glass-sharp
splinters, we reached a level chamber, vaulted, surprisingly, with
solid rock. It was good to see something of the earth again,
something that was not that deadly, all-embracing ice. At the far end
lay a blinding patch. I blinked.

"Sunlight!" I shouted joyously.

"Yes," Keston answered quietly. "That opening leads directly into the
valley on our land."

Abud roused himself from the unreasoning dread he had been in. It was
the first time he had spoken.

"Let us get out of here. I feel as though I'm in a tomb."

"Are you mad?" Keston said sharply. "The visors would pick you up at
once. You wouldn't last very long."

Abud stopped suddenly. There was a plaintive, helpless note to him.
"But we can't stay here forever. We'd starve, or die of cold. Isn't
there some way to get back to the top of the Glacier?"

"No--only the way we came. And that's been blocked with terminite."

"Then what are we going to do? You've led us into a slow death, you
with your boasted brains!"

"That remains to be seen," was the calm retort. "In the meantime,
we're hungry. Let us eat."

And the amazing man drew out of his torn flapping furs the gobs of
meat he had cut from the dead bear. I had quite forgotten them. With a
glad cry, I too reached into my garments and brought out my supply.

* * * * *

Abud's eyes glinted evilly. His hand stole stealthily to the bone
knife in its skin sheath. His spear had been dropped long before.

"None of that," Keston said sharply. "We'll all share equally, even
though you have no food. But if you try to hog it all, or use force,
you'll die as well as we. There's only enough for a meal or two; and
then what will you do?"

Abud saw that. He needed Keston's brains. His eyes dropped, and he
mumbled something about our misunderstanding his gesture. We let it go
at that. We had to. He could have killed us both if he wished.