investigate the nature, appearance, or
structure of the precious mass, Nerado ordered power into the converters
and drove an enormous softening field of force upon the object--a force
of such a nature that it would condense the metallic iron into an
allotropic modification of much smaller bulk; a red, viscous, extremely
dense and heavy liquid which could be stored conveniently in his tanks.

No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectors
again broke into an uproar. In one direction was an enormous mass of
iron, scarcely detectable; in another a great number of smaller masses;
in a third an isolated mass, comparatively small in size. Space seemed
to be full of iron, and Nerado drove his most powerful beam toward
distant Nevia and sent an exultant message.

"We have found iron--easily obtained and in unthinkable quantity--not in
fractions of milligrams, but in millions upon unmeasured millions of
tons! Send our sister ship here as once!"

"Nerado!" The captain was called to one of the observation plates as
soon as he had opened his key. "I have been investigating the mass of
iron now nearest us, the small one. It is an artificial structure, a
small space-boat, and there are three creatures in it--monstrosities
certainly, but they must possess some intelligence or they could not be
navigating space."

"What? Impossible!" exclaimed the chief explorer. "Probably, then, the
other was--but no matter, we had to have the iron. Bring the boat in
without converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both the
beings and their mechanisms," and Nerado swung his own visiray beam into
the emergency boat, seeing there the armored figures of Clio Marsden and
the two Triplanetary officers.

"They are indeed intelligent," Nerado commented, as he detected and
silenced Costigan's ultra-beam communicator. "Not, however, as
intelligent as I had supposed," he went on, after studying the peculiar
creatures and their tiny space-ship more in detail. "They have immense
stores of iron, yet use it for nothing other than building material.
They apparently have a rudimentary knowledge of ultra-waves, but do not
use them intelligently--they cannot neutralize even these ordinary
forces we are now employing. They are of course more intelligent than
the lower ganoids, or even than some of the higher fishes, but by no
stretch of the imagination can they be compared to us. I am quite
relieved--I was afraid that in my haste I m