suers struck him. He longed to look back, to see
what hunted them. But he dared not break stride to do that.

"Ahhhh!" The welcoming cry from Sssuri brought his attention back to
his companion as the merman broke into a wild run.

Dalgard summoned up his last rags of energy and coursed after him.
Sssuri had halted before a dark lump which protruded from the side of
the corridor.

"A sea lock!" Sssuri's claws were clicking over the surface of the
hatch, seeking the secret of its latch.

Panting, Dalgard leaned against the opposite wall. Just as a protest
formed in his mind he heard something else, the pad of feet, many
feet, echoing down the corridor. And somehow he was able now to look.

Round spots of light, dull, greenish, close to the ground, as if
someone had flung a handful of phosphorescence into the dark. But this
was no phosphorescence! Eyes! Eyes--he tried to count and knew it was
impossible to so reckon the number of the pack that ran mute but
ready. Nor could he distinguish more than a very shadowy glimpse of
forms which glided close to the ground with an unpleasant sinuosity.

"Ahhhhh!" Again Sssuri's paean of triumph.

There was the grate of unwilling metal forced to move, a puff of air
redolent with the sea striking their bodies in chill threat, the
brightness of violet light stepped up to a point far beyond the lamps
in the corridor.

With it came no rush of drowning water as Dalgard had half expected,
and when the merman clambered through the hatch he prepared to follow,
well aware that the eyes, and the pattering feet which bore them, were
now almost within range.

There was a snarl from the passage, and a black thing sprang at the
scout. Without clear sight of what he was fighting, he struck down
with his knife and felt it slit flesh. The snarl was a scream of rage
as the creature twisted in midair for a second try at him. In that
instant Sssuri, leaning halfway out of the hatch, struck in his turn,
thrusting his bone knife into shadows which now boiled with life.

Dalgard leaped for the lock door, kicking out swiftly and feeling the
toe of his boot contact with a crunch against one of those darting
shades, sending it back end over end into the press where its fellows
turned snapping upon it. Then Sssuri grabbed at him, bringing him in,
and together they slammed the hatch, feeling it shake with the shock
of thudding bodies as the pack outside went mad in their frustration.

While the merma