a dynamo."

It was Foster who broke in with the question that was in the thoughts of
the entire party. "Just where do _you_ come in on all this?" he asked
bluntly. "And what was your reason for bringing us here?"

There was blazing contempt in Layroh's rich voice as he turned toward
Foster. "_Yaharigan_ of Earth!" he jeered. "Your brain is as stupid as
the feeble brains of those true _yaharigans_ of Rikor whose physical
structure your human bodies so closely resemble. Have you not guessed
yet that I am no contemptible creature of Earth--that this human shell I
wear is nothing but a cleverly contrived disguise? Look, _yaharigans_,
look upon the real face of the one who has come to restore the Earth to
its rightful masters!"

With a single swift movement, Layroh snatched the colored goggles from
his face and flung them aside. There was a smothered gasp of horror from
the group. They saw now why Layroh had always worn those concealing
lenses. There were no eyes in that bronzed face, nothing but two empty
sockets. And from deep within the skull there glowed through those
gaping sockets a seething pool of lurid red--the nucleus spot of a
Shining One!

* * * * *

Reeling backward with the rest of the men from the horror of the glowing
thing within the skull, Foster dazedly heard Layroh's resonant voice
ring exultantly on: "My ancestors were among the twenty Shining Ones who
remained active. After placing their comrades in their long sleep those
twenty survivors set up signal apparatus in the cavern so that it could
be found again no matter how much the outside terrain might change. Then
they filled in the entrance tunnel with synthetic rock and embarked for
Rikor.

"There upon that dying planet generations passed. When the time came
that Rikor's sun again neared Earth, so rigorous had life become upon
Rikor that only six Rikorians remained alive. In order to increase our
chances of winning through on the perilous trip to Earth, each of us
traveled in a separate space ship. The precaution was well taken. We
encountered a dense cloud of meteors near Alpha Centauri and I was the
only survivor."

Layroh gestured briefly toward the rows of many-armed metal engines.
"There are the normal vehicles for a Shining One's body--armored
machines powered by sub-atomic motors and with appendages equipped for
every task of peace or war. This synthetic human figure which I now wear
was donned only in o