"And you, Mr. Correy?" I asked.
Correy shrugged.
"I believe you're, right, sir. They seem like such rather flimsy,
harmless things, though, that the disintegrator rays will take care of
without difficulty. Shall I order the ray operators to their stations,
sir?"
"Do that, please. And take personal charge of the forward projectors,
will you? Mr. Hendricks, will you command the after projectors? Mr.
Kincaide and I will carry on here."
"Shall we open upon them at will, or upon orders, sir?" asked Correy.
"Upon orders," I said. "And you'll get your orders as soon as they're in
range; I have a feeling we're in for trouble."
"I hope so, sir!" grinned Correy from the door.
Hendricks followed him silently, but I saw there was a deep, thoughtful
frown between his brows.
"I think," commented Kincaide quietly, "that Hendricks is likely to be
more useful to us in this matter than Correy."
I nodded, and bent over the television disk. The things were perceptibly
nearer; the hurtling group nearly filled the disk, now.
There was something horribly eager, horribly malignant, in the way they
shone, so palely red, and in the fashion in which their blunt tentacles
reached out toward the _Ertak_.