nhealed scratch across the
shoulder, somewhat inflamed, but not a serious wound.

The bright, eager eyes were alight with joy. But Thad thought he saw
fear in them. And even through the stiff fabric of the Osprey suit, he
felt that the dog was trembling.

Suddenly, with a low whine, it shrank close to his side. And another
sound reached Thad's ears.

A cry, weird and harrowing beyond telling. A scream so thin and so
high that it roughened his skin, so keenly shrill that it tortured his
nerves; a sound of that peculiar frequency that is more agonizing than
any bodily pain.

When silence came again, Thad was standing with his back against the
wall, the welding arc in his hand. His face was cold with sweat, and a
queer chill prickled up and down his spine. The yellow dog crouched
whimpering against his legs.

Ominous, threatening stillness filled the ship again, disturbed only
by the whimpers and frightened growls of the dog. Trying to calm his
overwrought nerves, Thad listened--strained his ears. He could hear
nothing. And he had no idea from which direction the terrifying sound
had come.

A strange cry. Thad knew it had been born in no human throat. Nor in
the throat of any animal he knew. It had carried an alien note that
overcame him with instinctive fear and horror. What had voiced it? Was
the ship haunted by some dread entity?

* * * * *

For many minutes Thad stood upon the deck, waiting, tensely grasping
the welding tool. But the nerve-shattering scream did not come again.
Nor any other sound. The yellow dog seemed half to forget its fear. It
leaped up at his face again, with another short little bark.

The air must be good, he thought, if the dog could live in it.

He unscrewed the face-plate of his helmet, and lifted it. The air
that struck his face was cool and clean. He breathed deeply,
gratefully. And at first he did not notice the strange odor upon it: a
curious, unpleasant scent, earthly, almost fetid, unfamiliar.

The dog kept leaping up, whining.

"Hungry, boy?" Thad whispered.

He fumbled in the bulky inside pockets of his suit, found a slab of
concentrated food, and tossed it out through the opened panel. The dog
sprang upon it, wolfed it eagerly, and came back to his side.

Thad set at once about exploring the ship.

First he ascended the ladder to the bridge. A metal dome covered it,
studded with transparent ports. Charts and instruments were in order.