our _Star-Streak_."

"Great Master, you will not be disappointed."

"And prisoners, but not too many. Bring me a few young specimens like
these, representative of Venus, Mars and the Earth. I want both of the
sexes, an equal number of each."

"Yes, Great Master."

"The warning signal is coming. You will now see our first contact."

The light at our feet was fading. It clung last by the gruesome face
of the huge brain; the goggling eyes shone green, and as the light in
the little mound-room dimmed there was in a moment nothing left but
those lurid green pools of the brain's eyes.

Then I was aware that the aperture at our feet had closed. Over us,
the barrage curtain was dissipating, sight and sound coming in to us.
The huge ball-shaped conclave room again became visible, the audience
crowding its entire inner surface.

I suddenly felt Anita's fingers twitching at my sleeve.

"Gregg, darling, can you hear me?"

"Yes. Be careful."

But Molo was gazing up over our heads. The crowd was shifting, bending
so that they all seemed gazing at their feet. A dim white radiance,
seeming to come from down here somewhere near us, lay in a splotch on
a segment of the throng overhead. Molo was watching.

I whispered, "All right, Anita. Quick, what is it?"

"The great control station is not far from here. Venza and I have been
trying to find out where it is exactly."

She stopped, evidently fearful of Meka. Then she added:

"Gregg, we haven't been guarded very closely; they're not suspicious
of us."

"Later, Anita. Can't talk now."

"No. Watch our chance. Later."

I turned toward Molo. "What's that up there?"

"The transparent ray is opening the top of the globe."

The clanging signal gong had stilled. The audience was hushed and
expectant. The white patch of light overhead spread until it
encompassed all the top of the globe. The whole area was glowing. The
people were white, spectral shapes, transparent! And the top of the
globe was transparent; I saw the night sky, with the gleaming reddish
stars.

It was, in a moment, as though we were staring up at a huge square
window orifice cut in the top of the room. A broad vista of cloudless
sky and stars was visible. Across it, like a shining sword, was a
narrow, opalescent beam.

"The Earth-beam which I planted," Molo whispered triumphantly. "Our
control station will contact with it now. The first contact!"

Earth was below our angle of vision, but the beam from