us. Or saved some of us and a part of Opal. Ato began training
divers against the day when the tunnel would be flooded. We moved as many
people as we could onto the ledges high up on the walls of Opal. We got our
great pumps ready to cope with the flooding.

"Also, Ato and I renewed our assault upon the Tower. But they bested us.
They had learned too many of the old secrets. Most of the young men of the
Neeblings died there against the walls. That is how we keep our promises,
Nors-King.

"But Old Gunnar had a trick or two left. Remember the tale that I read to
you in the throne-room of Baldar. The first of the Brons to enter the world
of Opal were soldiers sent from some blasted planet in outer space to find
a new home. They could fly their ship, but they knew nothing of the science
and the magic that had gone into it. We of the Neeblings learned that. And
we Neeblings were their historians for a thousand years. Also, it was we
who pieced together what little is known of their trip through space. And
this is why:

"We of Opal have always kept up with the world above us. About thirty
years ago there were some popular stories in your land about Tani of
Ekkis[Footnote: Amazing Stories, c. 1929.] whose people came through the
void in a spaceship. They traveled slow, and this is how they made the
trip. They had discovered something which kept most of the crew under
suspended animation for years upon years. That tale was not far from
right. For the Brons too had a capsule, red like a ruby, which made them
sleep for a score of years. There was an antidote, a yellow liquid like
curdled flames. Three drops into the veins and the sleeper would awake.
That is how they made the trip. Only a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator,
and a chief engineer were ever awake at one time. Their log-books were
brief. But we of the Neeblings have them.

* * * * *

"So," (Gunnar continued, drawing a huge forearm across his moist blue eyes)
"I persuaded Zol to go back to the Tower. I might as well have run him
through, but he was our best and last hope. Wolden gave him a tiny cube, no
larger than a ring-case. In it was a crystal with a number of silver wires
woven into it, but it was a good transmitter. Better than yours, Jack Odin.
For a week we heard from him daily.

"I say it was a week. We were working the clock around and our little sun
was misbehaving again. It was a feverish week, not measured by day and
nigh