rakes in
unconscious efforts to help Costigan dodge the beams and rods of death
flashing so appallingly close upon all sides. Out of the water and into
the air the darting, dodging lifeboat flashed in safety; but in the air,
supposedly free from menace, came disaster. There was a crunching,
grating shock and the vessel was thrown into a dizzy spiral, from which
Costigan finally leveled it into headlong flight away from the scene of
battle. Watching the pyrometers which recorded the temperature of the
outer shell, he drove the lifeboat ahead at the highest safe atmospheric
speed while Bradley went to inspect the damage.

"Pretty bad, but better than I thought," the captain reported. "Outer
and inner plates broken away on a seam. We wouldn't hold cotton waste,
let alone air. Any tools aboard?"

"Some--and what we haven't got we'll make," Costigan declared. "We'll
put a lot of distance behind us, then we'll fix her up and get away from
here."

"What are those fish, anyway, Conway?" Clio asked, as the lifeboat tore
along. "The Nevians are bad enough, Heaven knows, but the very idea of
intelligent and educated _fish_ is enough to drive one mad!"

"You know Nerado mentioned several times the 'semicivilized fishes of
the greater deeps'?" he reminded her. "I gather that there are at least
three intelligent races here. We know two--the Nevians, who are
amphibians, and the fishes of the greater deeps. The fishes of the
lesser deeps are also intelligent. As I get it, the Nevian cities were
originally built in very shallow water, or perhaps were upon islands.
The development of machinery and tools gave them a big edge on the fish;
and those living in the shallow seas, nearest the Islands, gradually
became tributary nations, if not actually slaves. Those fish not only
serve as food, but work in the mines, hatcheries, and plantations, and
do all kinds of work for the Nevians. Those so-called 'lesser deeps'
were conquered first, of course, and all their races of fish are docile
enough now. But the deep-sea breeds, who live in water so deep that the
Nevians can hardly stand the pressure down there, were more intelligent
to start with, and more stubborn besides. But the most valuable metals
here are deep down--this planet is very light for its size, you know--so
the Nevians kept at it until they conquered some of the deep-sea fish,
too, and put 'em to work. But those high-pressure boys were nobody's
fools. They realized that as time