ased to interest him, since they would not
allow any of the Terrans to approach their plunder and he could not
ask questions. Lablet continued to follow the officer about, vainly
trying to understand his speech. And Hobart had taken his place by the
upper entrance, his hand held stiffly across his body. The pilot knew
that the captain was engaged in photographing all this activity with a
wristband camera, hoping to make something of it later.

But Raf's own inclination was to slip out and do some exploring in
those underground corridors beyond. Having remained where he was for a
wearisome time, he noticed that his presence was now taken for granted
by the hurrying aliens who brushed about him intent upon their
assignments. And slowly he began to edge along the wall toward the
other doorway. Once he froze as the officer strode by, Lablet in
attendance. But what the painted warrior was looking for was a crystal
box on a shelf to Raf's left. When he had pointed that out to an
underling he was off again, and Raf was free to continue his crab's
progress.

Luck favored him, for, as he reached the moment when he must duck out
the portal, there was a sudden flurry at the other end of the chamber
where four of the aliens, under a volley of orders, strove to move an
unwieldy piece of intricate machinery.

Raf dodged around the door and flattened back against the wall of the
room beyond. The moving bars of sun said that it was midday. But the
room was empty save for the despoiled carcass, and there was no sign
of the aliens who had been sent out to scout.

The Terran ran lightly down the narrow room to the second door, which
gave on the lower pits beneath and the way to the arena. As he took
that dark way, he drew his stun gun. Its bolt was intended to render
the victim unconscious, not to kill. But what effect it might have on
the giant reptiles was a question he hoped he would not be forced to
answer, and he paused now and then to listen.

There were sounds, deceptive sounds. Noises as regular as footfalls,
like a distant padded running. The aliens returning? Or the things
they had gone to hunt? Raf crept on--out into the sunshine which
filled the arena.

For the first time he studied the enclosure and recognized it for what
it was--a place in which savage and bloody entertainments could be
provided for the population of the city--and it merely confirmed his
opinion of the aliens and all their ways.

The temptation to e