Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 98: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

96 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION lle Tite ly) i} Unless, of course, we can get them trapped in a dead end, and I don’t think theyll let us do that. But I can’t think of any other way of doing the job. How about you?” Spence shook his head, then asked, “How many entrances are there?” He wanted the overall picture before he started making suggestions. Time was too short. “Just the one,” and waited. There was probably a very simple answer to this problem, Spence thought, but the terrible urgency of finding that answer so clouded his brain that he couldn’t think at all. Performance data of the armaments carried by the ship, together with all the odd items of the Crawler physiology that they’d been able to pick up, tumbled through his mind like a pack of spilled cards, but nothing would make sense. Nothing fitted. And always there was the clock Bennett answered, rill ly 1 tee VE a ticking—like a mouse scratching and nibbling away at their dwindling store of time. He put his finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes tightly. Steady now, he thought in- tensely, this is getting you nowhere. Take it easy. Think. Question. How to catch five aliens hiding underground. Answer. Send robots to dig them out. That was logical, and the servomech officer had done the right thing. But any of the robots capable of taking the aliens were too big to traverse the tunnels. If, however, the tunnels were widened, and if the aliens stayed put until the grabs arrived, and if they were unarmed or incapable of damag- ing the grabs sent after them, then that solution might work out. Spence shook his head impatiently. There were too many “‘ifs.”’ Harrison had been figuring out something on his scratch-pad. He EComichooksco im