"Take this and go part way up," she directed. "But be careful, very careful, dearest--and throw it over the rim." Trusting her knowledge of this undersea world, he climbed the slippery wall. Halfway up he found a foothold. He tensed his muscles, heaved the weapon with the peculiar pushing gesture he had learned was the only way to throw under water. As the spear made a high arc he abandoned his exposed position in a headlong dive. Xintel shouted happily. "Look! Barry! Look!" Above the cleft the water was whipped to intense brilliance as the nightmare monsters converged on the spot where the spear had fallen. "What is it?" Barry yelped. Xintel laughed and threw her arms around his neck. "The curse, Barry! The curse Komso put upon us!" "Huh?" he grunted. "Everyone knows those beasts follow the smell of blood, and that a man wounded in the Outside is as good as dead. They follow other smells too!" At once he understood. "So Komso's curse is some powerful lure that will bring every monster within miles to attack, but has a smell we ourselves can't detect." She nodded. "That one we saw leaving our house--he did it." Xintel put down her skirt and even unclasped her precious metal necklace. Stark naked and unarmed she started up the slope. "Come back!" he yelled as he sensed her intention. She paused, but then continued upward. A shadow swooped. "Look out!" Barry screamed. But Xintel had been alert and had thrown herself into a plunging dive. "Oh!" she sobbed as she pulled herself up beside him. "It's no good. It has gotten into my skin. Probably yours too." But after his burst of renewed hope Barry refused to surrender. "This corrosive jelly might counteract it," he suggested. Xintel's eyes were somber. "We have nothing to lose," she agreed. They scooped out two troughs in the greasy jelly and buried themselves with only their heads projecting, but at Xintel's suggestion they took positions where they could keep an eye on the norus. "Rub some on your face," Barry advised the girl. "In your hair too." "It stings!" she complained. "I know. But it's our only chance." VIII They let an hour of torment pass, and although Xintel tried gamely to keep her face composed she could not hide an occasional grimace of pain as the caustic jelly ate at the more tender portions of her skin. The swarm of monsters still held patrol above the cleft with dull-witted reptilian patience. The two norus had settled down, squatting lumpishly, with only their eyes active. At last Barry pulled himself from his uncomfortable bed. His body was red and chapped from head to foot. Xintel was in the same condition. "I hope this works," he said. He climbed toward the rim, nearly to the top, and still the beasts paid no attention. He made no sudden movements and their eyesight was apparently dull. "Barry! That's enough! Come back!" Xintel called.