In the control room, they came upon Eli's body wedged between two banks of coils, his head twisted in a ghastly fashion. He must have died instantly, his neck broken by the concussion. Tentative efforts to restore electrical current were without avail. They located a few more undamaged flashlights and inspected the vessel. The first assumption had been that the dent knocked in their hull by impact with the asteroid occurred at the point where Link had been overtaken by the flood. It became apparent, however, that the blow had struck on the opposite side of the vessel, where a much greater inundation had occurred--was, in fact, still in process of spreading over the interior surface like a great blister. Link must have been flung against the hull from the girders on which he was roosting. His body broke through the weakened shell, and once the ooze had him it closed over him with implacable greed. The utter hopelessness of their position weighed on the three men like a pall. Any lingering faith that they were protected by a special providence was shattered. Already, three of their number had proved that death could strike as aimlessly and without warning in the space vessel as elsewhere. The ooze was working in through innumerable cracks in the rotten shell. From serving as their protection against the cold of outer space and the burning heat of the sun's rays, the covering had assumed the guise of a soulless monster, spreading its ravening tentacles to smother and devour them. DuChane's memory of the concussion was vague. The dead girl's body, wrested from his arms, must have hurtled against the shell, breaking through and being swallowed up in the same manner as Link's. "Probably better that way," he observed gruffly. "More like a human burial. Wonder if any of that hooch escaped." There had been an unwritten law that the small stock of liquor among the stores should be preserved for emergencies. Surreptitious violations there might have been, particularly by Maw Barstow, but no open drinking. Marlin shrugged. "I guess we all feel pretty shaky and exhausted," he acknowledged. The bottled items in the larder had been packed to withstand shocks. While there was some breakage, most of the liquor had survived. The three downed a couple of rounds in gloomy silence; then, with scarcely a word, they stumbled to their bunks. CHAPTER XIV Marlin woke with a smothering sensation and a foreboding. Fumbling for his flashlight, he sought the others. Maw Barstow was snoring stertoriously in her cubbyhole. Pearl, who should have occupied the pallet next to her, was gone. Sally, pale from the retching she had endured, was sleeping fitfully. In the storeroom, he found DuChane, lying in a stupor beside an empty bottle. There were several empties, in fact. DuChane and McGruder must have returned to make a night of it. But McGruder was nowhere in sight.