one of the insect's
lower arms. The arm fell as though paralyzed and a blue light played
across the beetle's eyes. Jim extended the sketch again and raised the
bar threateningly. The beetle moved over to the control board, Jim
following closely, and set the ship in motion. Ten minutes later it
rested on the ground beside the ship in which we had first taken the
air.

* * * * *

Following Jim's pictured orders the beetle opened the door of the
Mercurian ship and followed Jim into the Hadley. As we emerged from the
Mercurian ship I looked back. It had vanished completely.

"The children, Jim!" I gasped.

"I haven't forgotten them," he replied, "but they are all right for the
present. If we turned them loose now, we'd have ninety reporters around
us in ten minutes. I want to get our generators modified first."

He pointed toward the spot where the Mercurian ship had stood and then
toward our generators. The beetle hesitated, but Jim swung his bar
against the insect's side in a vicious blow. Again came the play of blue
light over the eyes; the beetle bent over our generaters and set to
work. Jim handed me the bar and bent over to help. They were both
mechanics of a high order and they worked well together; in an hour the
beetle started the generators and swung one of the searchlights toward
his old ship. It leaped into view on the radium coated screen.

"Good business!" ejaculated Jim. "We'll repair this door; then we'll be
ready to release the children and start out."

* * * * *

We followed the beetle into the Mercurian ship, which it seemed to be
able to see. It opened a door leading into another compartment of the
flyer, and before us lay the bodies of eight children. The beetle lifted
the first one, a little girl, up until his many-faceted eyes looked full
into the closed ones of the child. There was a flicker of an eyelash, a
trace of returning color, and then a scream of terror from the child.
The beetle set the girl down and Jim bent over her.

"It's all right now, little lady," he said, clumsily smoothing her hair.

"You're safe now. Run along to your mother. First Mortgage, take charge
of her and take her outside. It isn't well for children to see these
things."

The child clung to my hand: I led her out of the ship, which promptly
vanished as we left it. One by one, seven other children joined us, the
last one, a miss of not over eight, in