!" announced Clippen importantly, in the fashion of
one who brings surprising news. "'Electites,' they call them. Beings who
live in space--things, anyway; I don't know that you could call them
beings."

* * * * *

"Hm-m." I looked past him, down a mighty corridor of dimming years.
Creatures that lived in space.... I smiled in my beard. "Creatures
perhaps twice the height of a man in their greatest dimension? In shape
like a crescent, with blunted horns somewhat straightened near the tips,
and drawn close together?" I spoke slowly, drawing from my store of
memories. "A pale red in color, intangible and yet--"

"You've heard, sir!" said Clippen disappointedly to me. "My news is
stale."

"Yes, I've heard," I nodded. "'Electites,' they call them, eh? That's
the work of our great scientific minds, I presume?"

"Er--yes. Undoubtedly." Clippen started to wander restlessly around the
room. He had a great respect for the laboratory men, with their white
coats and their wise, solemn airs, and he disliked exceedingly to have
me present my views regarding these much overrated gentlemen. I have
always been a man of action, and pottering over coils and glass vials
and pages of figures has always struck me as something not to be
included in a man's proper sphere of activity. "Well, I believe I'll be
shoving off, sir; just dropped in for a moment," Clippen continued.
"Thought perhaps you hadn't heard of the news; it seems to be causing a
great deal of discussion among the officers at Base."

"Something new under the sun, eh?" I chuckled.

"Why, yes. You'll agree to that, sir, surely?" I believe the lad was
slightly nettled by my chuckle. No one likes to bear stale news.

"I'll agree to that," I said, smiling broadly now. "'Tis easier than
debating the matter, and an old man can't hope to hold his own in
argument with you quick-witted youngsters."

"I've never noticed," replied young Clippen rather acidly, "that you
were particularly averse to argument, sir. Rather the reverse. But I
must be moving on; we're shoving off soon, I hear, and you know the
routine here at Base."

* * * * *

He saluted me, rather carelessly, I should say, and I returned the
salute with the crispness with which the gesture was rendered in my day.
When he was gone, I turned to my desk and began searching in that huge
and capacious drawer in which were kept, helter-skelter, the dusty,
fa