tment the merman agreed. "It has been so for the last
thousand of our paces. It is my belief that this leads not to the sun
but out under the sea."

Dalgard missed a step. To Sssuri the sea was home and perhaps the
thought of being under its floor was not disturbing. The land-born
human was not so prepared. If he had experienced discomfort under the
river, what would it be like under the ocean? His terrifying dream of
a lid being pressed down upon him flashed back into his mind. But his
companion was continuing:

"There will be doors, perhaps into the sea itself."

"For you," Dalgard pointed out, "but I am no dweller in the depths."

"Neither were Those Others, yet they used these ways. And I tell
you"--in his earnestness the merman laid his hand once more on
Dalgard's arm--"to turn back now is out of the question. The death
which haunts the darkness is still sniffing out our trail."

Dalgard glanced involuntarily over his shoulder. By the faint and
limited light of the purple disks he could see little or nothing. An
army might creep there undetected.

"But--" His protest was in answer to the merman's seeming unconcern.

Sssuri at the first intimation that the hunters were behind them had
shown wariness. Now he did not appear to care.

"They had fed," he replied. "Scouts follow because we are something
new and thus suspect. When hunger rises once more in them, and their
scouts report that we are meat, then is the time to draw knives and
prepare for battle. But before that hour we may have won free. Let us
search for the gate we now need."

However confident the merman might be, Dalgard could not match that
confidence. In the open air he would have faced a snake-devil four
times his size without any more emotion than a hunter's instinctive
caution. But here in the dark, unable to rid himself of the belief
that thousands of tons of sea water hung over his head, he found
himself starting at any sound, his knife bare and ready in his
sweating hand.

He noted that Sssuri had stepped up the pace, passing into his
sure-footed glide which made Dalgard exert himself to keep up. Before
them the corridor stretched without a break. The merman's promised
exit, if it existed, was still out of sight.

It was difficult to gauge time in this dark hall, but Dalgard thought
that they were at least an hour farther on their way when Sssuri
paused abruptly once more, his head cocked in a listening attitude, as
if he caught some