whisper of sound too rarefied for his human
companion.

"Now--" the thought hissed as if he spat the words, "they hunger--and
they hunt!"

He bounded forward with a spurt, which Dalgard copied, and they ran
lightly, the dust undisturbed in years puffing up beneath the merman's
bare, scaled feet and Dalgard's hide boots. Still the unbroken walls,
the feeble patches of violet in the ceiling. But no exit. And what
good would any exit do him, Dalgard thought, if it opened under the
sea?

"There are islands off the coast--many islands--" Sssuri caught him
up. "It is in my mind that we shall find our door on one of those.
But--run now, knife brother, for those at our heels awake and thirst
for flesh and blood. They have decided that we are not to be feared
but may be run down for their pleasure."

Dalgard weighed his knife in his hand. "They shall find us with
fangs," he promised grimly.

"It will be better if they do not find us at all," returned Sssuri.

A burning arch of pain encased Dalgard's lower ribs, and his breath
came in gusts of hastily sucked air as their flight kept on, down the
endless corridor. Sssuri was also showing signs of the grueling pace,
his round head bent forward, his furred legs pumping as if only his
iron will kept them moving. And the determination which kept him going
was communicated to the scout as a graver warning than any thought
message of fear.

They were passing under one of the infrequent violet lights when
Dalgard got something else--a mental thrust so quick and sharp it was
as if a sword had cut through the daze of fatigue to reach his brain.
Yet that had not come from Sssuri, for it was totally alien, wavering
on a band so near the extreme edge of his consciousness that it
pricked, receded, and pricked again as a needle might.

This was no message of fear or warning, but of implacable stubbornness
and ravening hunger. And in that instant Dalgard knew that it came
from what was sniffing out their trail, and he no longer wondered that
the hunters were immune to other mental contact. One could not reason
with--that!

He spurted forward, matching the merman's acceleration of speed. But
to Dalgard's horror he saw that his companion now ran with one hand
brushing along the wall, as if he needed that support.

"Sssuri!"

His thought met a wall of concentration through which he could not
break. In a way he was reassured--for a moment, until another of those
stabs from their pur