*

They bent, for a moment, over the charts, and then stared down into the
television disk. Correy was first to speak.

"What are they?" he gasped. "Are they ... alive?"

"That is what we don't know. I believe they are, after a fashion. And,
if you'll observe, they are headed directly towards us at a speed which
must be at least as great as our own. Is that correct, Mr. Kincaide?"

Kincaide nodded, and began some hasty figuring, taking his readings from
the finely ruled lines which divided the charts into little measured
squares, and checking speeds with the chronometers set into the wall of
the room.

"But I don't understand the way in which they register on our navigating
charts, sir," said Hendricks slowly. Hendricks, my youthful third
officer, had an inquiring, almost scientific mind. I have often said he
was the closest approach to a scientist I have ever seen in the person
of an action-loving man. "They're a blur of light on the charts--all out
of proportion to their actual size. They must be something more than
material bodies, or less."

"They're coming towards us," commented Correy grimly, still bent over
the disk, "as though they knew what they were doing, and meant
business."

"Yes," nodded Kincaide, picking up the paper upon which he had been
figuring. "This is just a rule-of-thumb estimate, but if they continue
on their present course at their present speed, and we do likewise,
they'll be upon us in about an hour and a quarter--less, if anything."

* * * * *

"But I can't understand their appearance in the charts," muttered
Hendricks doggedly, still turning that matter over in his mind. "Unless
... unless ... ah! I'll venture I have it, sir! The charts are operated
by super-radio reflexes; in others words, electrically. They would
naturally be extremely sensitive to an electrical disturbance. Those
things are electrical in nature. Highly so. That's the reason for the
flare of light on the charts."

"Sounds logical," said Correy immediately. "The point, as I see it, is
not what they are, but what we're to do about them. Do you believe, sir,
that they are dangerous?"

"Let me ask you some questions to answer that one," I suggested. "Two
ships are reported lost in space--in this immediate vicinity. We come
here to determine the cause of those losses. We find ourselves the
evident objective of a horde of strange things which we cannot identify;
which Mr. Hendricks,