ircled about us, curiously, interestedly, twinkling
at us from their deep sparkling points of eyes.

Helplessly we gazed at those who circled around us. Then suddenly I felt
myself lifted once more, was tossed to the surface of the nearest block.
Upon it I spun while the tiny eyes searched me. Then like a human ball
it tossed me to another. I caught a glimpse of Drake's tall figure
drifting through the air.

The play became more rapid, breathtaking. It was play; I recognized
that. But it was perilous play for us. I felt myself as fragile as a
doll of glass in the hands of careless children.

I was tossed to a waiting cube. On the ground, not ten feet from me,
was Drake, swaying dizzily. Suddenly the cube that held me tightened its
grip; tightened it so that it drew me irresistibly flat down upon its
surface. Before I dropped, Drake's body leaped toward me as though drawn
by a lasso. He fell at my side.

Then pursued by scores of the Things and like some mischievous boy
bearing off the spoils, the block that held us raced away, straight for
an open portal. A blaze of incandescent blue flame blinded me; again
as the dazzlement faded I saw Drake beside me--a skeleton form. Swiftly
flesh melted back upon him, clothed him.

The cube stopped, abruptly; the hosts of little unseen hands raised
us, slid us gently over its edge, set us upright beside it. And it sped
away.

All about us stretched another of those vast halls in which on high
burned the pale-gilt suns. Between its colossal columns streamed
thousands of the Metal Folk; no longer hurriedly, but quietly,
deliberately, sedately.

We were within the City--even as Ventnor had commanded.

CHAPTER XIX. THE CITY THAT WAS ALIVE

Close beside us was one of the cyclopean columns. We crept to it;
crouched at its base opposite the drift of the Metal People; strove,
huddled there, to regain our shaken poise. Like bagatelles we felt in
that tremendous place, the weird luminaries gleaming above like garlands
of frozen suns, the enigmatic hosts of animate cubes and spheres and
pyramids trooping past.

They ranged in size from shapes yard-high to giants of thirty feet or
more. They paid no heed to us, did not stop; streaming on, engrossed in
whatever mysterious business was summoning them. And after a time their
numbers lessened; thinned down to widely separate groups, to stragglers;
then ceased. The hall was empty of them.

As far as the eye could reach the column