has happened?"

He looked up at me with shining, happy eyes, deep in black sockets of
hunger and suffering.

"The part that counts," he said hoarsely, "is that you're here, and we're
here with you. My men need rest and food--not too much food, at first,
for we're starving. I'll give you the story--or as much of it as I
know--while we eat."

I sent my orders ahead; for every man of that pitiful crew of survivors,
there were two eager men of the _Kalid's_ crew to minister to him. In
the little dining salon of the officers' mess, Wilson gave us the story,
while he ate slowly and carefully, keeping his ravenous hunger in check.

"It's a weird sort of story," he said. "I'll cut it as short as I can.
I'm too weary for details.

"The _Dorlos_, as I suppose you know, was ordered to L-472 to determine
the fate of the _Filanus_, which had been sent here to determine the
feasibility of establishing a supply base here for a new interplanetary
ship line.

"It took us nearly three days, Earth time, to locate this clearing and
the _Filanus_, and we grounded the _Dorlos_ immediately. Our
commander--you probably remember him, Hanson: David McClellan? Big,
red-faced chap?"

I nodded, and Wilson continued.

"Commander McClellan was a choleric person, as courageous a man as ever
wore the blue and silver of the Service, and very thoughtful of his men.
We had had a bad trip; two swarms of meteorites that had worn our nerves
thin, and a faulty part in the air-purifying apparatus had nearly done
us in. While the exit was being unsealed, he gave the interior crew
permission to go off duty, to get some fresh air, with orders, however,
to remain close to the ship, under my command. Then, with the usual
landing crew, he started for the _Filanus_.

"He had forgotten, under the stress of the moment, that the force of
gravity would be very small on a body no larger than this. The result
was that as soon as they hurried out of the ship, away from the
influence of our own gravity pads, they hurtled into the air in all
directions."

Wilson paused. Several seconds passed before he could go on.

"Well, the trees--I suppose you know something about them--reached out
and swept up three of them. McClellan and the rest of the landing crew
rushed to their rescue. They were caught up. _God!_ I can see them ...
hear them ... even now!

"I couldn't stand there and see that happen to them. With the rest of
the crew behind me, we rushed out, armed o