ike.
"Please record." He repeated this for thirty seconds, glancing at
his watch to make sure of the time, since the seconds of waiting
stretched to minutes in his brain. Then, as clearly as possible
without raising his voice above a whisper, he told of the discovery
of the tracks and the cave.

"... The bombs may or may not be in here, but we are going in to
find out. I'll leave my personal transmitter here with the broadcast
power turned on, so you can home on its signal. That will give you
a directional beacon to find the cave. I'm taking the other radio
in--it has more power. If we can't get back to the entrance I'll try
a signal from inside. I doubt if you will hear it because of the
rock, but I'll try. End of transmission. Don't try to answer me
because I have the receiver turned off. There are no earphones on
this set and the speaker would be too loud here."

He switched off, held his thumb on the button for an instant, then
flicked it back on.

"Good-by Lea," he said, and killed the power for good.

They circled and reached the rocky wall of the cliff. Creeping
silently in the shadows, they slipped up on the dark entrance of the
cave. Nothing moved ahead and there was no sound from the entrance
of the cave. Brion glanced at his watch and was instantly sorry.

Ten-thirty.

The last shelter concealing them was five metres from the cave. They
started to rise, to rush the final distance, when Ulv suddenly waved
Brion down. He pointed to his nose, then to the cave. He could smell
the magter there.

A dark figure separated itself from the greater darkness of the cave
mouth. Ulv acted instantly. He stood up and his hand went to his
mouth; air hissed faintly through the tube in his hand. Without a
sound the magter folded and fell to the ground. Before the body hit,
Ulv crouched low and rushed in. There was the sudden scuffling of
feet on the floor, then silence.

Brion walked in, gun ready and alert, not knowing what he would
find. His toe pushed against a body on the ground and from the
darkness Ulv whispered, "There were only two. We can go on now."

Finding their way through the cave was a maddening torture. They had
no light, nor would they dare use one if they had. There were no
wheel marks to follow on the stone floor. Without Ulv's sensitive
nose they would have been completely lost. The cave branched and
rejoined and they soon lost all sense of direction.

Walking was almost impossible. They had to