Sean took a stance, spat on his palms, and swung the ax, unmindful that he ripped open the wound Ralk had made when he stopped him from moving toward Maureen. The bright blade gleamed in the yellow light, the muscles, lean and sinewy across Sean's back rippled and tore his tunic across the back. The head of the ax hit Klash waist-high and bounced, flipping Sean to the deck. Klash rocked a little on his feet from the shock. That was all. Sean, a desperate grin tightening his lips, threw the book at Klash--he tied the hemp rope about his neck and tried to strangle the Krak; he put the crowbar in Klash's mouth, tried to break the jaws; turned the blow torch against his chest. No response. At long last, after he exhausted almost the complete roster of weapons, Sean looked thoughtfully at the grenade. Then he shook his head. Sean walked up to Klash, stared up at his towering bulk. Klash looked down at him, impassive. Sean laughed then and hurled himself upward, lashing out with his bony fists at the Krak's neck and shoulders. The impassivity vanished from Klash's face. It twisted, almost as if in pain, Sean thought, before the Earthman's senses were washed out in a rocking shock as one big fist lashed against the side of his head. The echo of his own laughter was the last sound he heard. * * * * * Sean still saw that strange look on Klash's face when he opened his eyes into the glaring yellow light. But the picture vanished as pain shuddered through his body. Mike's voice worked its way through his pain. "Mother of Erin, Sean, what did they do to you?" "Uh," grunted Sean and moved to a sitting position against the wall and looked down at his body and legs. He was covered with bruises, yellow and red and blue and black, and each throbbed its own special melody of hurt. "I don't know, Mike. I passed out when Klash hit me." Mike said: "Old Doc Perkins said there isn't a square inch of your body that hasn't a bruise. What he can't figure is how you took such punishment without getting a bone broken." "Hah," Sean tried to laugh through bruised lips. "Doc's wrong. They busted every bone in my body. Then they glued me together again." He paused. "Mike, I found it." "Sure, Sean," Mike put in gently. "You found it. That nice little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Only it blew up in your face." "No, Mike, I found that chink." Mike gasped once, then sat there very quietly staring at the red-headed Sean. Finally, he said, "Give me the solution." "It's the bone from the shoulder to neck, Mike. That's the vulnerable part." He launched into a description of his hopeless task of trying to destroy Klash. "Then at the end, Mike, I jumped up and socked him in the neck and in that hollow in the shoulder. "He winced, Mike, and I'll swear that he flinched in pain. Then he knocked me out." "But how do you know it isn't the neck?" "I told you I had that rope around his neck."