* *

Attempting to reconstruct the action of the tragedy from those grim
clues, he imagined that the five officers, aware of some peril, had
gathered here, fought, and died.

The dog refused to enter the room. It stood at the door, looking
anxiously after him, trembling and whimpering pitifully. Several times
it sniffed the air and drew back, snarling. Thad thought that the
unpleasant earthy odor he had noticed upon opening the face-plate of
his helmet was stronger here.

After a few minutes of searching through the wildly disordered room,
he found the ship's log--or its remains. Many pages had been torn from
the book, and the remainder, soaked with blood, formed a stiff black
mass.

Only one legible entry did he find, that on a page torn from the book,
which somehow had escaped destruction. Dated five months before, it
gave the position of the vessel and her bearings--she was then just
outside Jupiter's orbit, Earthward bound--and concluded with a remark
of sinister implications:

"Another man gone this morning. Simms, assistant technician.
A fine workman. O'Deen swears he heard something moving on
the deck. Cook thinks some of the doctor's stuffed
monstrosities have come to life. Ridiculous, of course. But
what is one to think?"

Pondering the significance of those few lines, Thad climbed back to
the deck. Was the ship haunted by some weird death, that had seized
the crew man by man, mysteriously? That was the obvious implication.
And if the flier had been still outside Jupiter's orbit when those
words were written, it must have been weeks before the end. A lurking,
invisible death! The scream he had heard....

* * * * *

He descended into the forecastle, and came upon another such silent
record of frightful carnage as he had found in the captain's cabin.
Dried blood, scraps of cloth, knives and other weapons. A fearful
question was beginning to obsess him. What had become of the bodies of
those who must have died in these conflicts? He dared not think the
answer.

Gripping the welding arc, Thad approached the after hatch, giving to
the cargo hold. Trepidation almost overpowered him, but he was
determined to find the sinister menace of the ship, before it found
him. The dog whimpered, hung back, and finally deserted him,
contributing nothing to his peace of mind.

The hold proved to be dark. An indefinite black space, oppressive with
the te