rface
instead of hugging the bottom."

"I never thought of that!" Steve said admiringly. Angus grunted, and
began to strip off his green rubber uniform.

"It takes a Scotsman to show the rest of the Universe how to get out of
a tough spot!"

* * * * *

It was afternoon on the following day when the _Viking's_ long hull
finally broke the surface. She lay in the water like a half submerged
cigar, the yellowish ripples lapping on the curved blue duralite of her
super-structure. The twisted remains of the shattered helicopters were
ugly stumps along the space-ship's sleek back. A single rocket tube
flamed and smoked astern, its blast driving the vessel through the water
at a good pace while her wake smoked and bubbled.

Gerry Norton opened the duralite dome of the upper control room and
stepped out on the wet deck with a few of the others. They were well out
on the great sea, with the green hills of the Giri-Savissa border a low
smear along the horizon to starboard. This was the same lonely sea they
had seen when they first dropped down through the clouds to Venus.

The vast and greenish-yellow waters were broken by scattered islands,
bare bits of rock that were dotted with blue moss. Sea birds swooped
about them. Lofty mountains on a distant shore were capped with snow. In
one or two places a narrow shaft of sunlight struck down through a brief
gap in the canopy of eternal clouds, but otherwise there was only that
subdued and peculiarly golden light in which there moved only a few
oddly shaped birds.

So much had happened since they first saw that lonely sea! It seemed
as though much more than a week had elapsed. Savissa and its Golden
Amazons ... the arrow tipped tower of Rupin-Sang ... the Scaly hordes
of Vaaka and the dread palace of the insane Lansa who had once been an
Earthly officer ... the secret and water-locked halls of Luralla where
The outlaws of Giri dwelt--many scenes went through Gerry Norton's mind.
He seemed to have aged ten years since the day he brought the _Viking_
down through the cloud screen. Well--the immediate problem was to get
some suitable metal to repair the smashed helicopters. The _Viking_
might possibly get up into the air with the power of her rockets alone
if they beached her on a sloping shore with her nose upward, but she
could never come down safely without helicopters.

"I'll hold her on this course a while," Gerry said. "In the morning we
can s