r death, but let's forget it. Now--how much of your air-units
is left?"

"About two hours. I lost a lot through a leak."

Ken took half of his own store of the little cells from his helmet.
"I'll share mine. That'll give us both sixteen hours all told--in case
we don't find your torpoon. You're sure they killed the whale in that
trap? And you know the way?"

"I think so," said Beddoes excitedly. "You follow me."

"All right. On helmets, then."

The clasps were fastened down, cutting them off from spoken
communication with each other. Ken took the hand-flash and crowbar and
stuck them in his own belt, and both clumsy, grotesque figures splashed
into the water, vanished beneath its surface and ducked under the
shadowy body of the dead blubber-man.

Below, in the dim quarter-light, Ken peered out of the entrance to the
cell chamber. The corridor seemed safe, there being only the distant
colored streaks of light-fish, and occasionally even these disappeared,
leaving heaped shadows in the darkened water. He nodded to Beddoes and
boldly they began their flight.

Their progress was nerve-rackingly slow, in spite of their utmost
exertions. The water that retarded them at times contained unsuspected
currents that destroyed their equilibrium and sent them stroking madly
with both hands to regain it. Far different, this, than the swift,
effortless swimming of the blubber-men. Their weighted feet stumbled
often on the floor of the passage, and several times they lost balance
and fell towards the sides. Each time that this happened Ken was struck
with the fear of ripping the fabric of his sea-suit. And all the time
there was the apprehension of imminent discovery.

At last he saw Beddoes wave an arm and enter a dim cleft a few feet
ahead in the left side of the wall. In turn he floundered through--and
just in time. From around a bend in the corridor shortly ahead there
came two blubber-men. In only a few seconds they would pass the niche
the two humans had entered. Crowbar ready, Ken flattened himself against
the sidewall, pulling his companion back with him. They waited.

* * * * *

The seal-men passed by--two sleek, blubbery shapes, flipper-arms and
legs weaving gracefully, bodies rolling slightly, eyes apparently
directed ahead. Close!

They had escaped that time, but there was a disturbing thought in Ken's
mind and in Beddoes' too, perhaps--as they resumed their slow-motion
flight down the