opened before it, and closed as soon as it had sped
through. In spite of the high velocity of the vehicle, it required
almost two hours to complete the journey. Finally, however, it slowed
to a halt and the Terrestrial visitors disembarked at a portal of the
Europan city of the Callistonians.

"Attention!" barked Captain King. "The name of this city, as nearly as
I can come to it in English, is _WRUZK_. 'Roosk' comes fairly close to
it and is easier to pronounce. We must finish our trip in small cars,
holding ten persons each. We shall assemble again in the building in
which we have been assigned quarters. The driver of each car will lead
his passengers to the council room in which we shall meet."

"Oh, what's the use--this is horrible, horrible--we might as well die!"
a nervous woman shrieked, and fainted.

"Such a feeling is, perhaps, natural," King went on, after the woman had
been revived and quiet had been restored, "but please control it as much
as possible. We are alive and well, and will be able to return to Tellus
eventually. Please remember that these people are putting themselves
to much trouble and inconvenience to help us, desperate as their own
situation is, and conduct yourselves accordingly."

The rebuke had its effect, and with no further protest the company
boarded the small cars, which shot through an opening in the wall and
into a street of that strange subterranean city. Breckenridge, in the
last car to leave the portal, studied his surroundings with interest as
his conveyance darted through the gateway. More or less a fatalist by
nature and an adventurer, of course, since no other type existed among
the older spacehounds of the IPC, he was intensely interested in every
new phase of their experience, and was no whit dismayed or frightened.

* * * * *

He found himself seated in a narrow canoe of metal, immediately behind
the pilot, who sat at a small control panel in the bow. Propelled by
electro-magnetic fields above a single rail, upon lightly touching and
noiseless wheels, the terrestrial pilot saw with keen appreciation the
manner in which switch after switch ahead of them obeyed the impulses
sent ahead from the speeding car. The streets were narrow and filled
with monorails; pedestrians pursued their courses upon walks attached
to the walls of the buildings, far above the level of the streets. The
walls were themselves peculiar, rising as they did stark, unbr