it a bit more and produced a tiny hole into the interior of the control board. It gave him a sick feeling at the pit of his stomach. "Say, Tex-come here a minute. I've got something."
"You think you've got something," Tex answered in muffled tones. "Wait till you've seen this."
He found Tex with a wrench in his hand and a cover plate off the gyro compartment. "After what happened to the Gary I decided to check this first. Did you ever see such a mess?" ~~
The mud had gotten in. The gyros, although shut down, were of course still spinning when the ship had gone into the sink-hole and normally would have coasted for days; they should still have been spinning when Tex removed the cover. Instead they had ground to a stop against the mud- burned to a stop.
"We had better call Oscar," Matt said dully.
With Oscar's help they surveyed the mess. Every instrument, every piece of electronic equipment had been invaded. Non-metallic materials were missing completely; thin metal sheets such as instrument cases were riddled with pinholes. "I can't understand what did it," Oscar protested, almost in tears.
Matt asked the Venerian in charge of the work. She did not understand him at first; he pointed out the pinholes, whereupon she- took a lump of the jelled mud and mash it flat. With a slender finger she carefully separated o what seemed to be a piece of white string, a couple inches long. "This is the source of thy troubles."
"Know what it is, Oz?"
"Some sort of worm. I don't recognize it. But I wouldn’t t expect to; the Polar Regions are nothing like this, thank goodness." "
"I suppose we might as well call off the working party.