but
those old ships were solidly built, and we made it.

As soon as I had completed my report to the Chief, the _Ertak_ was sent
instantly to a secret field, under heavy guard, and a new outer hull put
in place.

"This can't be made public," the Chief warned me. "It would ruin the
whole future of space travel, as people are just learning to accept it
as a matter of course. You will swear your men to utter secrecy, and
pass me your word, in behalf of your officers and yourself, that you
will not divulge any details of this trip."

The scientists, of course, questioned me for days; they turned up their
noses at the crude apparatus Hendricks had made, and which had saved the
_Ertak_ and all her crew--but they kept it, I noticed, for future
reference.

All ships were immediately supplied with devices very similar, but more
compact, the use of which only chief officers knew. And the scientists,
to my knowledge, never did improve greatly on the model made for them by
my third officer.

Whether or not these devices were ever used, I do not know. The
silver-sleeves at Base are a close-mouthed crew. Hendricks always held
that the group of things which so nearly caused the deaths of all of us
had wandered into our portion of Universe from some part of space beyond
the fringe of our knowledge.

* * * * *

But the same source which supplied one brood may supply another.
Evidently, from young Clippen's report, this thing has happened. And
since starting this account, I have determined why the powers that be
are willing now to have the knowledge made public. The new silicide
coating with which all space ships have been covered, is proof against
all electrical action. That it is smoother and reduces friction, is, in
my opinion, no more than a rather halty explanation. It is, in reality,
the decidedly belated scientific answer to a question raised back in the
hey-day of the _Ertak_, and my own youth.

That was many, many years ago, as the crabbed, uncertain writing on
these pages proves.

And now, rather thankfully, I am about to place the last of these pages
under the curious weight which has held the others in place as I have
written. That irregular bit of metal from the hull of the _Ertak_, so
deeply pitted on the one side, where the hungry things had sapped our
precious strength.

"Electites," the scientists have dubbed these strange crescent-shaped
things, young Clippen said. "Electite