And then the hunt started at the top of the ship, proceeding downward section by section.  Sinbad raised no protest in the control cabin, nor in the private cabins of the officers’ thereabouts.  If they could interpret his reactions the center section was free of the invaders.  So with Dane in control of the cat and Ali carrying the caged Hoobat, they descended once more to the level which housed the hydro galley, steward’s quarters and ship’s sick bay.

Sinbad proceeded on his own four feet into the galley and the mess.  He was not uneasy in the sick bay, nor in Mura’s cabin, and this time he even paced the hydro without being dragged—­much to their surprise as they had thought that the headquarters of the stowaways.

“Could there only have been one?” Weeks wanted to know as he stood by ready with the net in his hands.

“Either that—­or else we’re wrong about the hydro being their main hideout.  If they’re afraid of Queex now they may have withdrawn to the place they feel the safest,” Rip said.

It was when they were on the ladder leading to the cargo level that Sinbad balked.  He planted himself firmly and yowled against further progress until Dane, with the harness, pulled him along.

“Look at Queex!”

They followed Weeks’ order.  The Hoobat was no longer lethargic.  It was raising itself, leaning forward to clasp the bars of its cage, and now it uttered one of its screams of rage.  And as Ali went on down the ladder it rattled the bars in a determined effort for freedom.  Sinbad, spitting and yowling refused to walk.  Rip nodded to Ali.

“Let it out.”

Tipped out of its cage the Hoobat scuttled forward, straight for the panel which opened on the large cargo space and there waited, as if for them to open the portal and admit the hunter to its hunting territory.

Chapter XIII

OFF THE MAP

Across the lock of the panel was the seal set in place by Van Rycke before the spacer had lifted from Sargol.  Under Dane’s inspection it showed no crack.  To all evidence the hatch had not been opened since they left the perfumed planet.  And yet the hunting Hoobat was sure that the invading pests were within.

It took only a second for Dane to commit an act which, if he could not defend it later, would blacklist him out of space.  He twisted off the official seal which should remain there while the freighter was space borne.

With Ali’s help he shouldered aside the heavy sliding panel and they looked into the cargo space, now filled with the red wood from Sargol.  The redwood!  When he saw it Dane was struck with their stupidity.  Aside from the Koros stones in the stone box, only the wood had come from the Salariki world.  What if the pests had not been planted by I-S agents, but were natives of Sargol being brought in with the wood?

The men remained at the hatch to allow the Hoobat freedom in its hunt.  And Sinbad crouched behind them, snarling and giving voice to a rumbling growl which was his negative opinion of the proceedings.