le is
inevitable. At all events, it is of the utmost importance that we begin
repairing the damaged unit, for that is to be a task indeed."

"Yes, it will take time," agreed Stevens, remembering what the
Titanian captain had told him concerning the construction of those
plants--generators which had been in continuous and automatic operation
for thousands of Saturnian years.

"It will take more than time--it will take lives," replied Barkovis,
gravely. "Scores, perhaps hundreds, of us will never again breathe the
clear, pure air of Titan. In spite of all precaution and all possible
bracing and insulation, man after man after man will be crushed by
his own weight, volatilized by the awful heat, poisoned by the foul
atmosphere, or will burst into unthinkable flames at the touch of some
flying spark from the inconceivably hot metals with which we shall have
to work. A horrible fate, but we shall not lack for volunteers."

"Sure not; and of course you yourself would go. And I never thought of
the effect a spark would have on you--your tissues would probably be
wildly inflammable. But say, I just had a thought. Just how hot is the
air at those plants and just what is the actual pressure?"

"According to the records, the temperature is some forty of your
centigrade degrees above the melting-point of water, and the pressure
is not far short of two of your meters of mercury. I find it almost
impossible to think of mercury as a liquid, however."

"You find it impossible, since you use it as a metal, for wires in coils
and so on. But plus forty, while pretty warm, isn't impossible, by any
means; and we could stand double our air pressure for quite a while.
Both my partner and I are pretty fair mechanics and we've got quite a
line of machine tools, such as you could not possibly have here. We'll
give it a whirl, since we owe you something already. Lead us to it,
ace--but wait a minute! We can't see through the fog, so couldn't find
the plants, and probably your wiring diagrams would explode if I touched
them."

"I never thought of your helping us," mused Barkovis. "The idea of any
living being existing in that inferno has always been unthinkable, but
the difficulties you mention are slight. We have already built in our
vessel communicators similar to yours, and radio sets. With these we can
guide you and explain the plants to you as you work, and our tractor
beams will be of assistance to you in moving heavy objects, even at