shot eastward at bullet-like speed. The
spreading continental plateau of North America seemed to crawl backward,
beneath. A tremendous sand desert, marked with low, washed-down
mountains, and the vague, angular, geometric mounds of human cities that
were gone forever.

Beyond the eastern rim of the continent, the plain dipped downward
steeply. The white of dried salt was on the hills, but there was a
little green growth here, too. The dead sea-bottom of the vanished
Atlantic was not as dead as the highlands.

Far out in a deep valley, Kar-Rah, the city of the rodents, came into
view--a crystalline maze of low, bubble-like structures, glinting in the
red sunshine. But this was only its surface aspect. Loy Chuk's people
had built their homes mostly underground, since the beginning of their
foggy evolution. Besides, in this latter day, the nights were very cold,
the shelter of subterranean passages and rooms was welcome.

The mummy was taken to Loy Chuk's laboratory, a short distance below the
surface. Here at once, the scientist began his work. The body of the
ancient man was put in a large vat. Fluids submerged it, slowly soaking
from that hardened flesh the alkali that had preserved it for so long.
The fluid was changed often, until woody muscles and other tissues
became pliable once more.

Then the more delicate processes began. Still submerged in liquid, the
corpse was submitted to a flow of restorative energy, passing between
complicated electrodes. The cells of antique flesh and brain gradually
took on a chemical composition nearer to that of the life that they had
once known.

* * * * *

At last the final liquid was drained away, and the mummy lay there, a
mummy no more, but a pale, silent figure in its tatters of clothing. Loy
Chuk put an odd, metal-fabric helmet on its head, and a second, much
smaller helmet on his own. Connected with this arrangement, was a black
box of many uses. For hours he worked with his apparatus, studying, and
guiding the recording instruments. The time passed swiftly.

At last, eager and ready for whatever might happen now, Loy Chuk pushed
another switch. With a cold, rosy flare, energy blazed around that
moveless form.

For Ned Vince, timeless eternity ended like a gradual fading mist. When
he could see clearly again, he experienced that inevitable shock of vast
change around him. Though it had been dehydrated, his brain had been
kept perfectly