r once more and dropped. Snatching up a green dowel from the floor, he
jumped into the box as the door was closing. He had just time to lay the
rod across the threshold, as Adam had done, before the wall reached it
and was held.

Trying not to breathe, Summersby picked up Watkins and slung him over
his shoulder. He forced his fingers into the crack and heaved. Again he
threw his weight against the wall.

Then he was buckling at the knees, trying desperately to bring his mouth
next to the opening, but not quite making it.

* * * * *

"Describe it again," said Watkins. "Give me all the details you can
think of."

As Summersby went over what he remembered of the brown machine, Watkins
tried to envisage it. A tough job, and he might not be able to handle
it. To reverse a thing like that--when there'd be at least one or two
principles he'd never heard of--well, that would be the job of a
lifetime.

"How do you know that it's the instrument that brought us here?" he
asked.

"It must be." Summersby looked intent, almost eager. "It has those dials
that focus it almost pin-point on any planet they want; at least, I saw
quite a few planets, from a distance and close up. I saw a cow and a
city on Earth. Then there's the big brown box. It's hollow--the door was
half open. If they bring things, living things, from other planets, they
need a receiving station large enough to take 'em. The box. It's
logical."

"It sure is." Adam whistled. "So we're on another planet. That was
plain, if we'd thought about it seriously. No place on Earth could hide
a race like this. Not with all the factories they must have to produce
the toys and what you saw out there."

"Why couldn't we be inside the Earth?" asked Mrs. Full stridently.

Watkins said, "He looked _down_ on Earth. That argues another planet."

"But how did they get us here? In two days?"

Watkins scratched his bristled chin and thought aloud. "It must have
been instantaneous. Remember, we went through a quarantine and were
healed of just about everything that was wrong with us. That must have
taken a while."

"The octopus was still wet," said Adam, "and the grubs and locusts were
still kicking. They must focus that rig on Earth and push a button and
here it is, like that. Instant transmission of matter." He smiled
weakly, as though he were proud of the phrase. He looked very
frightened, thought Watkins, and unhappy.

Tom Watkins was scar