and peering in that window!"

"You're going crazy!" Steve Brent snapped, but he walked to the window.
His own eyes widened as he saw the strangely clad trio sitting their
mounts outside. Gerry waved violently to him.

"Let us in, you idiot!" he shouted, forgetting that the _Viking_ did not
carry any audiphones that could pick up his words. He heard Steve's
unsteady voice.

"Maybe we're both crazy, Portok, but I think they're really out there.
Open the outer door to the starboard space-lock."

* * * * *

A small door swung open on the starboard side of the _Viking's_ blue and
silver hull. That small compartment had really been designed for
dropping objects into the void of outer space, or for testing the
quality of the atmosphere on any stray planetoids the _Viking_ might
have visited on her journey across the vastness of interplanetary space,
but it would do for a water-lock in this instance.

Gerry and the others dismounted from their dolphins and let the reins
hang. Angus gave his mount a slap on the flank. With a flip of its tail
the big fish wheeled and swam off, and after a second the others
followed it. Gerry led the way into the space-lock and closed the door
behind him. It only took a few seconds for the blast of the _Viking's_
powerful compressed air tanks to blow out the water. Then, as Gerry
unstrapped his helmet and lifted the big glass globe off his head, Steve
Brent opened the inner door and stepped into the space-lock.

"I don't know if I'm crazy or dreaming or what, Chief," he said, "but
I'm damn glad to see you back."

"You're sane enough," Gerry snapped, "it's a long story, so skip it for
the moment. I thought _you_ were done for!"

"Not the _Viking_!" Larry affectionately slapped the laminated duralite
shell of the space-ship. "She can stand more than being dropped in the
drink from a few hundred feet up. Our problem is how to get going again.
We've been able to crawl along the bottom by using minimum power of one
rocket tube and scaring hell out of all the fish, but that's the best
we've been able to do. Now that Angus is back he can take over. What do
you think about the helicopters?"

"I could forge new ones in a week out of that blue metal they have in
Giri-Vaaka," McTavish muttered. "But God knows how we'll ever get hold
of a supply. Anyway, I think I can reverse enough of the gravity plates
to give this craft reserve buoyancy so she'll navigate on the su